The editor of a science journal has resigned after admitting that a recent paper casting doubt on man-made climate change should not have been published.

The paper, by US scientists Roy Spencer and William Braswell, claimed that computer models of climate inflated projections of temperature increase.

It was seized on by ‘sceptic’ bloggers, but attacked by mainstream scientists.

Wolfgang Wagner, editor of Remote Sensing journal, says he agrees with their criticisms and is stepping down.

‘Peer-reviewed journals are a pillar of modern science,’ he writes in a resignation note published in Remote Sensing.

‘Their aim is to achieve highest scientific standards by carrying out a rigorous peer review that is, as a minimum requirement, supposed to be able to identify fundamental methodological errors or false claims.

‘Unfortunately, as many climate researchers and engaged observers of the climate change debate pointed out in various internet discussion forums, the paper by Spencer and Braswell… is most likely problematic in both aspects and should therefore not have been published.’

The paper became a cause celebre in ‘sceptical’ circles through its claim that mainstream climate models inflated temperature projections through misunderstanding the role of clouds in the climate system and the rate at which the Earth radiated heat into space.

This meant, […]