The international body which advises leaders on the threat of climate change needs fundamental reform in the wake of a number of embarrassing mistakes, according to an independent review of the body published today
Despite calls for a change in leadership of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), its chair, Indian scientist Rajendra Pachauri, said today that he wouldn't be leaving immediately.
The IPCC came under intense criticism in January when a number of errors were found in the body's most recent 2007 report. It stated, wrongly, that Himalayan glaciers could have disappeared completely by 2035.
The report also included evidence from news magazines and environmental NGOs that aren't subject to stringent peer-review. Elsewhere the 2007 report also stated that 55 per cent of the Netherlands is below sea level, when the actual figure is 23 per cent.
Speaking at a press conference at UN headquarters in New York, the review's chairman Professor Harold Shapiro of Princeton University said: "Operating under the public microscope the way IPCC does requires strong leadership, the continued and enthusiastic participation of distinguished scientists, an ability to adapt, and a commitment to openness if the value of these assessments to society is to be maintained."
But the review, carried out by the world science body the Inter-Academy Council, stopped short of calling for the IPPC chair to step down.
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