Climategate U.N. Panel to Face Investigation

The IPCC was at the center of controversy at the beginning of the year.
Climategate U.N. Panel to Face Investigation
Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri, seen here in New Delhi, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Wednesday in New York, the creation of an independent review of the 'procedures and practices' (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images))
3/11/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/CLIMATE-2-96031231-c.jpg" alt="Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri, seen here in New Delhi, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Wednesday in New York, the creation of an independent review of the 'procedures and practices'  (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images))" title="Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri, seen here in New Delhi, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Wednesday in New York, the creation of an independent review of the 'procedures and practices'  (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images))" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1822183"/></a>
Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri, seen here in New Delhi, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Wednesday in New York, the creation of an independent review of the 'procedures and practices'  (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images))
A team of top scientists will hold a review into how the U.N.’s panel on climate change published a report that contained alleged factual errors; it was announced on Thursday.

However, the review will focus less on whether scientists deliberately overstated the case for climate change, but rather on the “procedures and practices” employed by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The IPCC was at the center of controversy at the beginning of the year, when it emerged that a claim in its 2007 report that Himalayan glaciers could completely melt by 2035, was based on a quote from an unknown scientist in a popular science magazine in 1999.

Chief of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri, later told reporters that he regretted the “poorly substantiated estimates.”
“It was a human error. We will do everything to see that such mistakes are not repeated,” Pachauri said back in January. Pachauri came under heavy criticism for the mistake with many calling for his resignation.
In a news conference on Thursday, Pachauri and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promised a review of the panel’s methods in order to prevent any further errors.

Ban said that the InterAcademy Council, a consortium of the world’s most prestigious scientific societies, would select a panel of scientists to conduct the investigation.

“Let me be clear: The threat posed by climate change is real,” Ban said at the conference at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
“Nothing that has been alleged or revealed in the media recently alters the fundamental scientific consensus on climate change, nor does it diminish the unique importance of the IPCC work,” he said.

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, vice chairman of the IPCC, acknowledged that the report contained factual errors, but told media at the time that it should not undermine the integrity of the 3,000-page report.

The scandal broke at a time when media were focusing on a series of leaked e-mails from climate scientists in the U.K., which suggested that evidence on climate change had been deliberately exaggerated. Both scandals have worked to damage public trust in the science behind climate change.

Republican lawmaker Sen. James M. Inhofe said on Thursday that the U.N. should hold a more thorough investigation into the 2007 report. “This is only half the battle,” Inhofe said in a statement. “A legitimate inquiry must look back and examine the science in the assessment reports, and not just the mistakes that have been uncovered thus far.”