Japan's boffins: Global warming isn't man-made - The Register

Japan's boffins: Global warming isn't man-made — The Register:

The Register's title is an understatement. The report from The Japan Society of Energy and Resources goes beyond questioning human origins of global warming. It also claims that the pattern of warming since the mid-20th century has ceased.

Excerpts:

One of the five contributors compares computer climate modelling to ancient astrology. Others castigate the paucity of the US ground temperature data set used to support the hypothesis [emph. added], and declare that the unambiguous warming trend from the mid-part of the 20th Century has ceased.

The article includes a translation of parts of the report.

Global mean temperature rose continuously from 1800-1850. The rate of increase was .05 degrees Celsius per 100 years. This was mostly unrelated to CO2 gas (CO2 began to increase suddenly after 1946. Until the sudden increase, the CO2 emissions rate had been almost unchanged for 100 years). However, since 2001, this increase halted. Despite this, CO2 emissions are still increasing.

There is no prediction of this halt in global warming in IPCC simulations.

Hm, I thought there was. Certainly the halt has been discussed online — fun example here — and it has been attributed to a trough in sunspot activity...

But the report addresses this point, too, and goes on to say

...climate change and solar activity's relationship is inconclusive. It is necessary to increase research efforts into the relationship between Earth's climate fluctuations and solar activity.