Climate change fat cats go global | thetelegraph.com.au

CLIMATE change bureaucrats are now among the most travelled public servants in the land - spending an average of $250,000 a month on overseas conferences and study trips.

As 40 boffins prepare to leave next week for the resort town of Durban in South Africa for the doomed UN climate change conference, The Daily Telegraph can reveal last year's overseas trips cost taxpayers $3.1 million.

According to documents supplied by the department, 86 staff travelled overseas, flying business class or first class during 2010.

Carbon Trust and Met Office dragged into fresh Climategate row > National News > News | Click Green

One Hadley Centre greenhouse gas assessment was excluded because its data was described internally as “sh*t” and another message in September 2007, states: “we're all about PR here, not much about science”.

And other emails reveal infighting, back-stabbing and at at times, ridiculous attempts to gain recognition and grab the headlines -with a contact within the BBC featuring prominently.

Other messages clearly show a complicated web of academic establishments calling on each other to submit so-called papers and research to demonstrate evidence for substantial grant applications and others look to swap notes on submitted journal articles for peer-review.