Govt backs embattled IPCC chief Pachauri Thursday, 02 September 2010 04:56

NEW DELHi: India’s government said it remained fully supportive of IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri after a damning UN-ordered review called for changes to the Nobel Prize-winning climate change body’s leadership.

“Pachauri has the full support of the government,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said late Tuesday after a report on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called for major reforms in its functioning.

The UN-ordered probe said a major overhaul was required of the IPCC, which was established to sift through scientific research and produce the most authoritative report possible on climate change for world leaders.

Glaring errors were revealed in the panel’s landmark 2007 Fourth Assessment Report -- notably that Himalayan glaciers which provide water to a billion people in Asia could be lost by 2035, a claim traced to a magazine article.

The UN report called for changes to the IPCC’s leadership, stricter guidelines on source material and a check on conflicts of interests. It said the chairman should become a part-time position and change with every review.

Pachauri, who has faced repeated calls to resign, admitted that the errors badly damaged the IPCC’s credibility, but said Monday that the climate panel’s member nations would decide whether to replace him.

Pachauri, a vocal advocate for tough action against global warming, also criticised what he called “ideologically driven” attacks on the IPCC, which he has led since 2002.

He insisted the IPCC report’s core assertion that the world is heating up has not been challenged and he condemned what he called “posturing” in attacks on the climate change body.

The IPCC is to hold a general meeting in Busan, South Korea in October which Pachauri said would debate the proposed reforms. The IPCC has already carried out four major reviews of the world climate and Pachauri said he would like to be in charge for the fifth, which will also be debated in Busan. AFP

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