Saudi Arabia calls for 'climategate' investigation

Delegates follow the opening ceremony of the Climate Conference in Copenhagen on Monday.

COPENHAGEN — Saudi Arabia called for an independent investigation into “climategate” Monday, warning that the scandal over stolen emails threatened to undermine the global-warming negotiations beginning here.

“We believe this scandal — or what has been referred to as the ‘climategate’ scandal — we think this is definitely going to affect the nature of what could be trusted in our deliberations,” the Saudi Arabian negotiator said.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has promised to investigate the scandals, although its chairman said Monday that he said it provided no basis for questioning the science behind global warming.

But the Saudi negotiator told delegates that “the level of confidence is certainty shaken.”