IPCC Procedures Get Tough Rebuke from Distinguished Panel

The Nobel prize-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change must undergo "fundamental" changes if it is to remain a "valuable resource," said a committee probing the group's processes and procedures in an unexpectedly scathing review.

The 113–page Climate Change Assessments: Review of the Processes and Procedures of the IPCC was presented to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Monday.

It represents the most comprehensive look ever taken at one of the world’s most influential climate science organizations.

The review was carried out by 12 experts of the InterAcademy Council (IAC), an Amsterdam-based organization of 15 of the world's science academies. The committee was chaired by Harold T. Shapiro, an economist and former president of Princeton University.

While Shapiro declared the IPCC assessment process a success "overall" and a value to society, he also clearly stated that the panel hasn't kept up with the complexity of climate science research and higher public expectations.

"Significant improvements are ... necessary for the fifth assessment [report on climate change] and beyond," which has already begun and is due out in 2014, the peer-reviewed investigation said.

The authors presented a list of nearly two dozen recommendations for comprehensive reform. "Most ... can be implemented during the fifth assessment process," they wrote.

Pachauri Out?

One of them is to limit the term of the IPCC chair to one assessment period, or six years, instead of two terms – a policy that would force current chair Rajendra Pachauri out of his job.

"[The recommendation] was not in any way connected to Dr. Pachauri," Shapiro clarified at UN headquarters on Monday. "Our notion was that an organization like this needs to have its leadership constantly changed to increase vitality."

Pachauri said he thought the findings were intended for the further-off future.

"I think the IAC's recommendations are forward looking," he said. "I've been elected to continue the fifth assessment process."

However, Pachauri said the issue "will be discussed" at an October plenary of the IPCC in South Korea. There, he said, the group will vote on which recommendations of the IAC to implement — and by when.

"I see this [IAC review] as a mission that I cannot shirk, and I cannot walk away from," he said, suggesting he may resign if called upon to do so.

Since its establishment by the World Meteorological Organization in 1988, the IPCC has released period assessments on the state of climate change science to guide national and international global warming policy.

The IAC review was commissioned by the UN secretary general and the IPCC in March. Its charge was to examine the entire IPCC processes – from how it corrects mistakes to its inclusion of contrarian views and its quality control of data.

Himalayan Glacier Error

The review came largely in response to an erroneous claim in the over 1,000-page 2007 fourth assessment that Himalayan glaciers could disappear completely by 2035, or sooner, if the present rate of global warming continues.

Skeptics seized upon the blunder as evidence that the science on global warming is not settled.

Shapiro said the mistake, and others, injured public trust in the IPCC.