From the “Bob Ward department”.
![Bob-Ward-293x350[1]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/bob-ward-293x3501.jpg?quality=83)
Exposed: How top university helped secure £9million of YOUR money by passing off rivals’ research as its own… to bankroll climate change agenda
- One of the world’s leading institutes has claimed credit for its rivals’ work
- Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy made bid for more funds
- It claimed it was responsible for work published before it even existed
One of the world’s leading institutes for researching the impact of global warming has repeatedly claimed credit for work done by rivals – and used it to win millions from the taxpayer.
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday also reveals that when the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP) made a bid for more Government funds, it claimed it was responsible for work that was published before the organisation even existed. Last night, our evidence was described by one leading professor whose work was misrepresented as ‘a clear case of fraud – using deception for financial gain’. The chairman of the CCCEP since 2008 has been Nick Stern, a renowned global advocate for drastic action to combat climate change.
He is also the president of the British Academy, an invitation-only society reserved for the academic elite. It disburses grants worth millions to researchers – and to Lord Stern’s own organisation.
On Friday, the CCCEP – based jointly at the London School of Economics and the University of Leeds – will host a gala at the Royal Society in London in the peer’s honour. Attended by experts and officials from around the world, it is to mark the tenth anniversary of the blockbuster Stern Review, a 700-page report on the economic impact of climate change. The review was commissioned by Tony Blair’s Government.
The review argued that the world had to take immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or face much higher future costs. It has exerted a powerful influence on successive British governments and international bodies.
Part of the CCCEP’s official mission, which it often boasts about in its public reports, is to lobby for the policies Lord Stern advocates by presenting the case for them with British and foreign governments and at UN climate talks.
Last night, CCCEP spokesman Bob Ward admitted it had ‘made mistakes’, both in claiming credit for studies which it had not funded and for papers published by rival academics. ‘This is regrettable, but mistakes can happen… We will take steps over the next week to amend these mistakes,’ he said.
The Mail on Sunday investigation reveals today that:
- The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which has given the CCCEP £9 million from taxpayers since 2008, has never checked the organisation’s supposed publication lists, saying they were ‘taken on trust’;
- Some of the papers the CCCEP listed have nothing to do with climate change – such as the reasons why people buy particular items in supermarkets and why middle class people ‘respond more favourably’ to the scenery of the Peak District than their working class counterparts;
- Papers submitted in an explicit bid to secure further ESRC funding not only had nothing to do with the CCCEP, they were published before it was founded;
- The publication dates of some of these papers on the list are incorrect – giving the mistaken impression that they had been completed after the CCCEP came into existence.
Academics whose work was misrepresented reacted with fury. Professor Richard Tol, a climate change economics expert from Sussex University, said: ‘It is serious misconduct to claim credit for a paper you haven’t supported, and it’s fraud to use that in a bid to renew a grant. I’ve never come across anything like it before. It stinks.’
The paper cited by the CCCEP of which Prof Tol is a co-author was published online by the Ecological Economics journal on July 31, 2008.
…
Mr Ward said the CCCEP is a ‘world class university research centre’, and when it asked for the second slice of funding from the ESRC, it submitted in all ‘520 research and policy outputs’ and 139 media articles. He added: ‘We reject any suggestion that we misrepresented the outputs of the Centre in our submission to the mid-term review.’ He claimed our investigation was an attempt to ‘promote climate change denial’.
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I think Mann should issue complimentary Nobel Prize certificates to everyone involved.
He must be furious that he won’t have the chance to schmooze with Bob Dylan this season.
Good news – real science with the guts to stand against scam, corruption and wishful green thinking!
Someone should make a complaint to the Met Police. CCCEP gives a London address at LSE as a contact office – that’s Met jurisdiction. This looks like fraudulent solicitation of funding, misconduct in public office and quite possibly misappropriation of public monies. Someone should be going to gaol if convicted. Were I in UK and a UK taxpayer, I’d do it – this appears to be plain criminal.
Funnily enough I tweeted the story to CPSUK.GOV 😀
Any response?
David Rose is one of the few journalists I still respect, he’s a very nice chap too
As Lady Bracknell said in The Importance of Being Earnest, to lose one parent is a misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness. In this case substitute making mistakes for losing parents.
To see this kind of thing and and consider what happened the great Bill Gray (RIP) It just makes you put your head in your hands
Ward and all supporting the so-called `Grantham Institute` should be prosecuted. What they did amounts to theft from ordinary taxpayers. Or will the `great and the good` circle their wagons yet again as they did at the University of East Anglia. Now it is the world famous London School of Ecomics and London University that has been indelibly soiled. No Tony Blair there to help you now. Where are the Government legal custodians and the Metropolitan Police? Cannot they see this dreadful tissue of lies and fraud? When will ordinary folk and taxpayers be protected. The cash that was deceitfully received would have been better spent on the National Health Service. Words fail me – have they no conscience at all?
“Last night, CCCEP spokesman Bob Ward admitted it had ‘made mistakes’, both in claiming credit for studies which it had not funded and for papers published by rival academics.”
At best this is a sloppy organisation. If they make fundamental, professional mistakes like this, why would anyone trust any of their research? It’s likely to be as sloppy and inaccurate as their administration process.
Academics whose work was misrepresented reacted with fury. Professor Richard Tol, a climate change economics expert from Sussex University, said: ‘It is serious misconduct to claim credit for a paper you haven’t supported, and it’s fraud to use that in a bid to renew a grant. I’ve never come across anything like it before. It stinks.’
The paper cited by the CCCEP of which Prof Tol is a co-author was published online by the Ecological Economics journal on July 31, 2008.
However, one of the co-authors of that paper is a member of the Centre and certainly is entitled to claim it as his prior work. It was listed as having been produced without any ESRC funding, so I can’t see what Tol’s objection is.
How long has this fraud been going on at the London School Of Economics ? Yes stealing someone else’s work for financial gain is a mistake and stealing taxpayer grant money under false pretenses is a mistake . Who Knew ?
If a student pulled the same stunt where would they be .? That’s right either in jail or at the very least on the street .
This wasn’t students (who are actually smarter than the climate clowns ) this arrogant dishonesty deserves a criminal charge response .