IPCC to face inquiry on climate report

The IPCC and its chairman R.K. Pachauri have come under attack over errors in their report on climate change. Photo: PTI


Indian scientist R.K. Pachauri-led U.N. panel on climate change will face an independent international review after a series of allegations of errors in its report on global warming hit its credibility.

Environment and Climate ministers, who held a closed door meeting in Bali Thursday night, have insisted that an independent review should be carried out following reports of mistakes in IPCC’s last report, and a row surrounding Mr. Pachauri’s robust response to his critics, reports said.

If Mr. Pachauri’s management is found to be at fault, his position could become untenable, The Daily Telegraph reported from Bali.

The report said participants in the unprecedented meeting — held at the annual assembly of Governing Council of the U.N. Environment Programme’s Governing Council in Bali — were sworn to secrecy over the decision and it is only expected to be announced after its detailed scope and composition have been worked out by UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation, the two U.N. agencies that oversee the IPCC’s work.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and its chairman Mr. Pachauri have come under attack over errors in their report on climate change. The panel was awarded the Nobel Prize last year for its work highlighting the dangers of climate change.

The ministers, led by Hillary Benn, British Environment Secretary, and his counterparts from Germany, Norway, Algeria and Antigua — reportedly refused to allow Mr. Pachauri to decide who would carry out the review, insisting it must be completely and demonstrably independent of the IPCC.

The report quoted Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director, as saying that the IPCC faced a “crisis of confidence” with the public.

According to participants at the meeting, the report said Mr. Pachauri expressed regret for any mistakes that had been made, but stopped short of apologising. The participants said he admitted only one mistake, a discredited prediction that the glaciers of the Himalayas would entirely melt away by 2035, for which the IPCC has already apologised. They say he described other alleged errors as misunderstandings.

The Hindu