"Lord Oxburgh, former non-executive chairman of Shell, will head up a team of leading scientists looking at claims fossil fuels cause global temperatures to rise.

Other controversial names on the panel include Prof Kerry Emanuel, professor of meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where the infamous "hockey stick" graph was first created. He is best known for a paper that suggested hurricanes are getting fiercer with global warming, immediately causing sceptics on the internet to start questioning the appointment.

The new inquiry will look into the mountains of research by the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU).

The university is the leading institution for climate change research and has influenced government policy around the world.

But the theft of thousands of emails cast doubt on the science in a scandal known as 'climategate'. Sceptics claim that the emails show scientists were wiling to manipulate the data to show global warming."

Louise Gray reports for the London Telegraph March 22, 2010. [2]