Tuesday, February 28th 2012, 4:28 AM EST
In his own words Lord Stern is a 'policy wonk'. He is frustrated by the way the media reports climate science and scandals, such as the recent Heartland Institute docuements, and instead urges them to retain a firm focus on how governments can end high carbon growth and accelerate emerging green technologies.
In an exclusive interview with BusinessGreen, Stern suggests large parts of the media are failing to communicate the complex problem of rising global temperatures and climate change, and are instead diverted by the 'tawdry stories of who hacked into whom'.
Climate scientist Peter Gleick last week admitted to using a false name to obtain materials from the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based think tank with a stated goal of challenging climate change science and policy. The documents, at least one of which Heartland has insisted is a fake, reveal the controversial group hopes to raise almost $4.5m in corporate donations during 2012 and is working on a raft of projects to undermine understanding of climate science.
Stern, chairman of the London School of Economics (LSE) Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, says he encourages climate scientists to speak publicly about the broader risks of climate change, such as flooding and drought, rather than retaining a sense of academic impartiality to which they usually adhere to.
And while he admits developments such as the recent Heartland scandal 'can be of interest', he also maintains they detract from more serious policy issues.
'I think that scientists, like social scientists, should get on and do decent solid serious research and try to do it on the issues that count and share their findings in a productive way,' he says.
'That's what really matters and I think the tawdry stories of who hacked into whom, or when, and just how dodgy it looked when they hacked in. I think they're just diversions from serious discussion.'
Unsurprisingly, Stern is significantly more comfortable discussing the UK's growing portfolio of environmental policies, especially the Green Investment Bank for which he is one of the nine financiers and economists tasked with overseeing its launch.
And if he were carrying the Chancellors' red briefcase on Budget day next month, Stern says he would bring forward the borrowing powers of the Green Investment Bank to create an institution which can which can borrow and expand very quickly.
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