[citation needed] In 2005, he was awarded the René Descartes Prize for Collaborative Research[3] together with Prof. Ola M. Johannessen and Dr. Leonid Bobylev from the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre in Norway and Russia for the Climate and Environmental Change in the Arctic project.

A draft paper discussing issues of climate sensitivity and uncertainties in the IPCC Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports in relation to a recent paper by Otto et al. was submitted by Bengtsson and colleagues to Environmental Research Letters in February 2014, and was rejected in mid March after peer review by two referees who found that it did not meet the requirement to "significantly advance knowledge of the field".

Following this, Bengtsson and his co-authors then requested the journal to publish it as a shorter "Perspective" article, but in early April the journal's editorial board turned this request down, adding that the paper contained errors and exceeded the normal size limit for "Perspective" pieces.

Later that day, Bengtsson issued a statement that "I do not believe there is any systematic 'cover-up' of scientific evidence on climate change or that academics' work is being 'deliberately suppressed', as the Times front page suggests.

[6] In 2014, Bengtsson joined the Global Warming Policy Foundation as a board member, but resigned soon after.