New Zealand Climate Science Coalition (NZCSC)

Background

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition was formed in April 2006 by a group of New Zealanders “concerned at the misleading information being disseminated about climate change and so-called anthropogenic (man-made) global warming.” [1]

The group’s mission reads as follows:

“To represent accurately, and without prejudice, facts regarding climate change; to provide considered opinion on matters related to both natural and human-caused climate effects; and to comment on the economic and socio-political consequences of climate change.”

According to WHOIS information, The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition’s website, climatescience.org.nz was first registered on April 24, 2006 by Terry Dunleavy. The website nzclimatescience.net, which appears to feature identical content, was registered April 14, 2006. [2], [3] 

Dunleavy is a director of both the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, and the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC). Tom Harris, Director of the ICSC, says that the New Zealand Climate Science coalition launched the ICSC in 2007 because it had  “received such positive feedback from around the world … that they decided they needed an international group.” [4]

According to Tim Lambert at Deltoid, “The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition isn’t made up of climate scientists, but is just a group of global warming skeptics who gave themselves a fancy title. And they just got caught combining temperature data from different places to get rid of the inconvenient warming trend in New Zealand.” [5]

Stance on Climate Change

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition (NCCSC)  was founded with the aim of “refuting what it believes are unfounded claims about anthropogenic (man-made) global warming.”

According to the NZCSC:

“The climate is always changing and the nation may well benefit from moderate global warming. Having said that, temperature records indicate that New Zealand has not warmed significantly in the last fifty years.” [6]

Funding

The Conservative Transparency project has one funding record on file for the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, based on publicly available 990 tax records. The Heartland Institute donated $25,000 to NZCSC in 2007. [7]

Hot Topic reports The Heartland Institute also gifted US $45,000 to the International Climate Science Coalition, forwarding the funding to NZ CSC webmaster and ICSC founding chairman Terry Dunleavy. The documents do not reveal what the money was used for, but four NZ CSC members attended the December 2007 Bali conference as part of an ICSC delegation.  [8]

Key People

• Jack Welch — (Chairman), Former Navy chief Rear Admiral. [9], [6]
• Terry Dunleavy — Foundation member [6]

The following people were listed on the NZCSC coalition’s website, as of October, 2015: [1]

Inaugural Founders

• Vincent Gray
• Gerrit J. van der Lingen
• August H. (“Augie”) Auer Jr
• Bob Carter
• Warwick Hughes
• Roger Dewhurst
• David J. Bellamy
• Len Walker
• Owen McShane
• Bryce Wilkinson
• Brian Leyland
• Denis Dutton
• David Henderson
• Terry Dunleavy

Advisers

• Chris de Freitas
• John Maunder
• Willem de Lange

Actions

September 13, 2013

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition submitted an open letter to The Prime Minister’s chief science adviser, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, where they “expressed their concern about the nature of his report ‘New Zealand’s Changing Climate and Oceans: The Impact of Human Activity and Implications For the Future’,” reads the NZCSC press release. [10]

“We are perplexed by a report which purports to be independent but draws only on information related to one hypothesis, that of the anthropogenic nature of the source of climate change. For the last two years, two issues have preoccupied climate science––many published papers have devoted consideration to both the pause in the trend in global average temperature, and to climate sensitivity. Both issues are essential: that the global average temperature has not increased in the last 17 years means that hypothesis that increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere increases global average temperatures is incorrect or the climate sensitivity to CO2 is grossly over-estimated. The report pays little attention to these issues,” the NZCSC says.

Signatories included all members of the NZCSC.

May 21–23, 2012

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition is listed as an official co-sponsor of the Heartland Institute’s Seventh International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC7). [11]

August 2010

The Coalition commenced legal action against the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).  [12]

Bryan Leyland claimed that the New Zealand Meteorological Service had shown no warming during the past century but NIWA had adjusted its records to show a warming trend of 1 degree Celsius.

NZCSC asked the High Court to invalidate its official temperature record, to prevent it using the temperature record when advising Government, and to require the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research to produce a “full and accurate” temperature record. [12], [13]

The statement of claim against the NIWA was filed under the New Zealand Climate Science Education Trust (NZCSET), all of whose trustees were members of the NZ Climate Science Coalition, reports The Conversation. [14]

May 16–18, 2010

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition (NZCSC) was a co-sponsor of the Heartland Institute’s Fourth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC4) in Chicago, IL. [15]

DeSmogBlog found that 19 of the 65 sponsors (including Heartland itself) had received a total of over $40 million in funding since 1985 from ExxonMobil (who funded 13 of the organizations), and/or Koch Industries family foundations (funded 10 organizations) and/or the Scaife family foundations (funded 10 organizations).  [16]

June 2, 2009

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition (NZCSC) was a co-sponsor of the Heartland Institute’s Third International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC3) in Washington, DC. [17]

November 25, 2009

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition (NZCSC) released a press release on a “research project” where they claim that New Zealand does not have a global warming trend and accuses NZ climate scientists of perpetrating a climate-gate type scandal. [18]

Deltoid reported on the story, reiterating research done by Gareth Renowden at Hot Topic who found that the NZCSC had manipulated data and made the NZ warming trend go away by treating measurements from different sites as if they came from the same site. [5], [19]

March 8–10, 2009

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition (NZCSC) was a co-sponsor of the Heartland Institute’s Second International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC2) in New York. [20]

DeSmogBlog researched the funding behind Heartland’s Second International Conference on Climate Change and found that sponsor organizations had received over $47 million in funding from energy companies and right-wing foundations, with 78% of that total coming from Scaife Family foundations. [21]

July 2008

NZCSC issued a press release stating that the premise that “the globe is warming” was “a lie.”

The release described the Royal Society of New Zealand’s statement on climate change as “an orchestrated litany of lies.” [22]

March 2008

The New Zealand Listener reported that Owen McShane and Bryan Leyland of NZCSC were lobbying journalists to cover their questioning of climate change science in order to create an illusion of greater disagreement over the science than actually exists. [23]

April 2007

NZCSC described the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report as “dangerous unscientific nonsense” and “lacking in scientific rigour.” [24]

July 2006

The Coalition called on the New Zealand government to institute a Royal Commission on climate change because the public were “being given incomplete, inaccurate and biased information about the effects of increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere” when “global warming caused by man-made emissions of greenhouse gases … cannot be substantiated.” [25]

The Government refused on the grounds that the majority of climate scientists in the world agree that there is no longer any doubt that climate is changing due to human activity. [26]

May 14, 2006

The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition’s website, climatescience.org.nz was first registered on April 24, 2006 by Terry Dunleavy. The website nzclimatescience.net, which appears to feature identical content, was registered April 14, 2006. [2], [3]

Co-founder Owen McShane gave this statement to press before going public with the website:

“Those of us involved in forming this coalition believe that now is the time for individual countries like New Zealand to assemble their own national expert panels, so that these panels can form larger groupings with like minded-panels from other countries so as to be ready to deal with the reports to be published by the IPCC next year. Their aim should not be to repeat, or parallel, the work of the IPCC, but to audit its reports, and to let the members of the IPCC know that such auditors are waiting in the wings.” [27]

Related Organizations

• International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC).
• Australian Climate Science Coalition (ACSC).

Resources

1. “About Us & Contact,” The New Zealand Climate Science Coalition. Archived October 22, 2015. WebCite URL: http://www.webcitation.org/6cTuQMQ3X
2. “Whois Record for ClimateScience.org.nz,” DomainTools. Accessed October 22, 2015.
3. “Whois Record for nzClimatesCience.net,” DomainTools. Accessed October 22, 2015.
4. Youtube Video, “ICSC-introduction-July2011.” Uploaded by TomHarrisICSC on June 13, 2011.
5. Tim Lambert. “New Zealand Climate Science Coalition caught lying about temperature trends,” Deltoid, November 26, 2009. Archived October 23, 2015. WebCite URL: http://www.webcitation.org/6cTxBMWjg
6. Call for Royal Commission on Climate Change” (Press release). New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, July 26, 2006. Republished by Scoop Independent News.
7. “New Zealand Climate Science Coalition,” Conservative Transparency. Accessed October 22, 2015.
8. “Puppets on a String: US Think Tank Funds NZ Sceptics,” Hot Topic, January 24, 2012. Archived October 23, 2015.
9. “Doubts on human-induced climate change,” New Zealand Farmers Weekly, May 5, 2008. Archived February 18, 2012.
10. (Press Release). “Science Adviser Challenged on ‘Misleading’ Climate Report,” Scoop Independent News, September 13, 2013.. Archived October 23, 2015. 
11. “Cosponsors,” 7th International Conference on Climate Change. Archived May 10, 2012.
12. “Niwa sued over data accuracy,” Stuff.co.nz, August 15, 2010. WebCite URL: http://www.webcitation.org/6cU2OKWVn
13. “Niwa challenged over accuracy of data,” New Zealand Herald, August 15, 2010. WebCite URL: http://www.webcitation.org/6cU2WUXRB
14. “An insider’s story of the global attack on climate science,” January 22, 2014. Archived October 23, 2015. 
15. 4th International Conference on Climate Change Conference Program (PDF), The Heartland Institute. 
16. Brendan DeMelle. “Denial-a-palooza Round 4: ‘International Conference on Climate Change’ Groups Funded by Exxon, Koch Industries,” DeSmogBlog, May 13, 2010. 
17. “Co-Sponsors,” Third International Conference on Climate Change. Archived July 14, 2010.
18. (Press Release). “NIWA “adjusts” records to show warming,” Scoop Independent News, November 26, 2009. Archived October 23, 2015. WebCite URL: http://www.webcitation.org/6cTxcxHyF
19. “NZ SCEPTICS LIE ABOUT TEMP RECORDS, TRY TO SMEAR TOP SCIENTIST,” Hot Topic, November 26, 2009. Archived October 23, 2015. WebCite URL: http://www.webcitation.org/6cTxpE9Xv
20. “Co-Sponsors,” The 2009 International Conference on Climate Change. Archived April 28, 2011. 
21. “Heartland Institute’s 2009 Climate Conference in New York: funding history of the sponsors,” DeSmogBlog.
22. Vincent Gray. “Comments on the recent statement by the climate committee of the Royal Society of New Zealand,” New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, July 15, 2008. Archived Oct 14, 2008.
23. Dave Hansford. “Some like it hot,” New Zealand Listener, Vol 213 No 3541 (March 22028, 2008). Archived April 21, 2008.
24. “IPCC Report slammed as ‘dangerous nonsense’” (Press release), New Zealand Climate Science Coalition. Republished by Scoop Independent News, April 10, 2007. Archived October 23, 2015.
25. “Call for Royal Commission on Climate Change” (Press release). New Zealand Climate Science Coalition, July 26, 2006. Republished by Scoop Independent News. Archived October 23, 2015. 
26. David Parker. “Royal Commission on Climate Change rejected,” New Zealand Government Press Release, July 26, 2006. Archived October 23, 2015. WebCite URL: http://www.webcitation.org/6cU2q1ZkJ
27. (Press Release: Centre for Resource Management) “Scientists Group to Refute Global Warming Claims,” Scoop Independent News, May 1, 2006. Archived October 23, 2015.

Other Resouces

• ExxonSecrets Factsheet: New Zealand Climate Science Coalition.
• “New Zealand Climate Science Coalition,” SourceWatch profile.
• “New Zealand Climate Science Coalition,” Wikipedia.