http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7009710.ece

Jonathan Leake

LORD STERN'S report on climate change, which underpins government policy, has come under fire from
a disaster analyst who says the research he contributed was misused.

Robert Muir-Wood, head of research at Risk Management Solutions, a US-based consultancy, said the
Stern report misquoted his work to suggest a firm link between global warming and the frequency and
severity of disasters such as floods and hurricanes.

The Stern report, citing Muir-Wood, said: "New analysis based on insurance industry data has shown
that weather-related catastrophe losses have increased by 2% each year since the 1970s over and
above changes in wealth, inflation and population growth/movement.

"If this trend continued or intensified with rising global temperatures, losses from extreme
weather could reach 0.5%-1% of world GDP by the middle of the century."

Muir-Wood said his research showed no such thing and accused Stern of "going far beyond what was an
acceptable extrapolation of the evidence".
The criticism is among the strongest made of the Stern report, which, since its publication in
2006, has influenced policy, including green taxes.

Muir-Wood's study did show an association between global warming and the impact and frequency of
disasters. But he said this was caused by exceptionally strong hurricanes in the final two years of
his study.

A spokesman for Stern said: "Muir-Wood may have been deceived by his own observations."