"The biggest surprise is that the countries that gave the money did not track it in any significant way," said Saleemul Huq, one of authors of the study, The Eight Unmet Promises of Fast-Start Climate Finance, in a telephone interview from Doha.
The company's other cofounder, David Friedberg, is an early Google executive who then started Climate Corp., a crop insurance company that uses large amounts of data about rain and heat patterns, plus soil quality and root depths of various plants to sell custom farm insurance.
The World Resources Institute recently released updated estimates of the "fast-start" climate mitigation and adaption commitments rich nations made to poor countries after the Copenhagen summit.
And the company knew the scientists were right: that's why they started "climate-proofing" their own installations, for instance building their drilling rigs to accommodate the sea level rise they knew was coming.
In other words, the company started climate-proofing its facilities to head off a future its own scientists knew was inevitable.
If they make their voices louder, they will help create the political space for Republican candidates to start confirming climate science and advocating climate action.
"In the past, in some instances, young people were going to start on climate change without really knowing about climate," said Rita Gardner, the RGS director, who does, however, want climate change taught at GCSE and A-level.
"In the past, in some instances, young people were going to start on climate change without really knowing about climate," Rita Gardner, the director of the Royal Geographical Society told The Guardian, noting that it should be taught to older students.
Meanwhile the prime minister, Tony Abbott, has directed $4m to start a climate consensus centre fronted by political scientist and climate change contrarian Bjørn Lomborg.
