The Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas, has been accused of being forced into an embarrassing climb-down.
In an interview with a Finnish newspaper last week, Taalas had hit out at what he called climate ‘extremists and doomsters’, and called for a wider range of voices to be heard in the climate debate.
In a WMO statement today, Taalas appears to have backtracked from this robust position, saying he had been wrongly portrayed as “questioning the international focus on the need for robust climate action”.
However, GWPF director Benny Peiser says that this is misleading.
“Nobody said or reported such as thing. He seems to have come under pressure from activists and is simply confessing his orthodoxy on climate change.”
“It’s very disappointing that another official has been forced to back down after making a perfectly reasonable statement. It undermines trust in the whole field.”
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