Upholders of the global warming consensus have just been handed an almighty dilemma by Natural Environmental Research Council. Having spent years dismissing any results produced by sceptics as (allegedly) big oil funded and therefore untrustworthy, they are going to have to come to terms with the fact that in future a large chunk of environmental research is going to be done in collaboration with Shell.

NERC has today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with multinational oil and gas company Shell.

The partnership will enable Shell to put NERC's world-leading environmental science at the heart of responsible management of our planet, by providing access to independent, objective advice and information.

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Collaborating with Shell in this way will benefit NERC in a number of ways, such as helping to identify opportunities for joint funding and postgraduate training which align with both partners' requirements.