Climate clash

A renowned economist has accused government minister Rodney Hide and big business interests of spreading misinformation around climate change.

Independent economist and investment adviser Gareth Morgan has spent half a million of his own money and 18 months to research a book on the issue.

Poles Apart, which Morgan co-wrote with freelance writer John McCrystal, concludes the weight of current evidence favours human-made climate change.

Morgan said the book was designed to get past emotion and misinformation, such as views expressed by Hide.

Hide last year told Parliament climate change data and hypothesis "do not hold together". He called emission trading schemes "a worldwide scam and swindle".

Morgan said: "When I get a non-scientist belching emotion like that, I just think that's gutter of politics. I was trying to clear the room of the Rodneys of this world, and whoever his equivalent is on the other [environmental alarmist] side."