Royal Society: ExxonMobil targets U.K.

LONDON, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- The head of Britain's Royal Society is warning that an ExxonMobil-funded group is working to soften London's concern about global warming.

Bob May said Thursday's meeting of the Royal Institution was been organized by Britain's Scientific Alliance and the George C. Marshall Institute of Washington, to which the oil company gave an undisclosed sum this month, the Guardian reported.

"A lobby of professional skeptics who opposed action to tackle climate change" is turning its attention to Britain because of its leaders intend to use their G8 presidency to push for cuts in greenhouse gases, May said.

The G8, or "Group of Eight" industrial nations, includes leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, with European Union participations. They meet July 6-8 in Scotland.

The Scientific Alliance was set up in 2001 and is run by Mark Adams, a former adviser to Tony Blair for six months after the 1997 election, the newspaper said.

One alliance adviser is Sallie Baliunas, an astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center, a noted global warming skeptic and senior scientist with the Marshall Institute.

ExxonMobil denied involvement in Thursday's Royal Institution meeting.