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IPCC Procedures Probed

Climate Change: Panel chairman describes how error about Himalayan glaciers' melting ended up in 2007 report

by Cheryl Hogue
May 17, 2010

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Credit: Mikhail Evstafiev
Pachauri explained how the IPCC report error happened during a review panel public hearing.
Credit: Mikhail Evstafiev
Pachauri explained how the IPCC report error happened during a review panel public hearing.

The external review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change got underway on May 14 with the IPCC chairman explaining how a key error crept into the panel's landmark 2007 report.

That report incorrectly predicted that Himalayan glaciers are melting so quickly that they would disappear by 2035.  The flawed conclusion about the rate of melting was eventually traced to a 1999 news report.

At the public meeting in Amsterdam, IPCC Chairman Rajendra K. Pachauri explained to the IPCC Review Committee how this error ended up in the 2007 report. Convened by the InterAcademy Council, an organization of the world's science academies, the committee is conducting an independent review of the IPCC's procedures and processes at the behest of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (C&EN, March 15, page 13).

"The basic failure was that on the part of the authors themselves in not making sure that this information was authentic and valid. It should have been caught by perhaps the review editor as well, but it didn't happen," Pachauri told the review committee. "Somehow it just missed everybody's attention. It is, in my view, a human failure. We just have to make sure something like this doesn't happen."

The report's inaccurate prediction about the Himalayan glaciers, Pachauri emphasized, "does not take away anything from the fact that these glaciers are melting at a very rapid rate."

He acknowledged that the IPCC has done a poor job in responding to the discovery of the mistake. "We have been less than adequate in informing the public that this was an error," he said.

Pachauri asked the review committee to recommend how the IPCC could enhance its skills for communicating with the public.

"We have to prepare ourselves for criticism," he said. "We have to ensure that we provide the facts, we provide the truth whenever there is criticism."

The review committee, whose 12 members are economists and scientists drawn from five continents, expects to finish its probe of the IPCC by Aug. 30, said its chairman, Harold T. Shapiro, an economics professor and president emeritus at Princeton University.

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