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January 23, 2010

UN climate change expert: there could be more errors in report

Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent

From The Times January 23, 2010


The Indian head of the UN climate change panel defended his position
yesterday even as further errors were identified in the panel's
assessment of Himalayan glaciers.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri dismissed calls for him to resign over the Inter- governmental Panel on Climate Change's retraction of a prediction that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035.

But he admitted that there may have been other errors in the same
section of the report, and said that he was considering whether to take
action against those responsible.

ôI know a lot of climate sceptics are after my blood, but I'm in no mood
to oblige them,ö he told The Times in an interview. ôIt was a collective failure by a number of people,ö he said. ôI need to consider what action
to take, but that will take several weeks. ItÆs best to think with a
cool head, rather than shoot from the hip.ö

The IPCC's 2007 report, which won it the Nobel Peace Prize, said that
the probability of Himalayan glaciers ôdisappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very highö.

But it emerged last week that the forecast was based not on a consensus
among climate change experts, but on a media interview with a single
Indian glaciologist in 1999.

The IPCC admitted on Thursday that the prediction was ôpoorly
substantiatedö in the latest of a series of blows to the panelÆs
credibility.

Dr Pachauri said that the IPCC's report was the responsibility of the
panel's Co-Chairs at the time, both of whom have since moved on.

They were Dr Martin Parry, a British scientist now at Imperial College
London, and Dr Osvaldo Canziani , an Argentine meteorologist. Neither
was immediately available for comment.

ôI donÆt want to blame them, but typically the working group reports are managed by the Co-Chairs,ö Dr Pachauri said. ôOf course the Chair is
there to facilitate things, but we have substantial amounts of
delegation.ö

He declined to blame the 25 authors and editors of the erroneous part of
the report , who included a Filipino, a Mongolian, a Malaysian, an
Indonesian, an Iranian, an Australian and two Vietnamese.

The ôco-ordinating lead authorsö were Rex Victor Cruz of the
Philippines, Hideo Harasawa of Japan, Murari Lal of India and Wu
Shaohong of China.

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