Excerpts from the Telegraph article
By Geoffrey Lean, in Bali
Rajendra Pachauri, the controversial Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is to face an international inquiry into the performance of his organisation.
Environment and Climate ministers meeting in closed session in Bali last night insisted that an independent review should be carried out following the publicising of mistakes in its last report, and a row surrounding Dr Pachauri’s robust response to his critics. If his management is found to be at fault his position could become untenable.
Participants in the unprecedented meeting – held at the annual assembly of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Governing Council in Bali – were sworn to secrecy over the decision and it is only expected to be announced after its detaled scope and composition have been worked out by UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation, the two UN agencies that oversee the IPCC’s work.
…
The review is to report by August to allow time for its conclusions – and Dr Pachauri’s position – to be assessed before the IPCC meets for its own annual assembly in Korea in October.
Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director said that the IPCC faced a “crisis of confidence” with the public. , According to participants at the meeting, Dr Pachauri expressed regret for any mistakes that had been made, but stopped short of apologising for them. “He gave the impression of making an apology without actually doing so”, said one.
The participants add that he admitted only one mistake, a discredited prediction that the glaciers of the Himalayas would entirely melt away by 2035, for which the IPCC has already apologised. They say he described other alleged errors – such as a prediction that food production in parts of Africa might be cut in half by 2020 or the citing of studies by pressure groups rather than peer-reviewed research – as misunderstandings.
…
Their main concern has been over the aggressive way in which Dr Pachauri has responded to criticism, beginning with denouncing Indian research suggesting that the glaciers were not melting so rapidly as “voodoo science”. Many wish he would resign,. But he was reelected unopposed less than 18 months ago,and has often rejected doing so.
====================================
For a complete report, read the Telegraph article
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Talking of the UN…
Leaked planning documents (PDF) obtained by Fox News lift the lid on the UN’s plan to impose global governance by the time of their 2012 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio, which will mark the 20th anniversary since the notorious “Earth Summit” held in the same city.
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/022510_greeneconomy.pdf
Actually, I think Pach welcomes the opportunity to leave the IPCC as a wealthy man…
Soon, he’ll be free to produce, direct, and star in the movie version of “Return to Almora.”
Ugh! I don’t know which hurts humanity worse, Pach and his AGW act, or starring in a porn movie!!
Independent inquiry – yeah right.
Whether he keeps his job or loses it, it will not be independent.
The snake has more than one head
While there could be variants on the theme, the realist (or cynic) in me sez that the above by DavidMHoffer is the most likely scenario; i.e.:
”Don’t be fooled, this is not yet victory.”
ClimateGate has I believe progressed to the full-blown FUBAR stage; to where somebody pretty signficant is going to have to be designated as the sacrificial lamb. But as also pointed out above:
Never forget that this is the UN we’re talking about.
In that regard the above by Robert Burns is also on the mark:
”The IPCC is a politic animal masquerading as a scientific organization.”
Stay tuned……
Well it is usual for the varmints; once being exposed, to discover that they need to spend more quality time with their families; and that gives them their cue to exit stage left taking all their ill-gotten gains with them.
It would be unseemly for any shyster to sneak off with the loot, before he has been uncovered; after all, that implies he is leaving something else on the table, that he could be taking with him.
Miscreants have to be chased out.
I presume that the august panel who put the Saddam Hussein oil for food hoods behind bars; will deal with this situation ; or did I just imagine that something happened to those international thieves.
HUGE ICEBERG BREAKS OFF ANTARCTICA
Scientists say a vast iceberg weighing billions of tonnes which broke off the Antarctic continent this month poses a potential threat to the circulation of the world’s oceans.
They say the 2,500 square kilometre iceberg, floating south of Australia, could block an area that produces a quarter of the world’s dense and very cold seawater, known as bottom water.
This water drives ocean currents, and scientists say weather patterns could be affected in decades to come.
Dr Neal Young is a glaciologist at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre in Tasmania.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2010/02/100226_iceberg_wt_sl.shtml
Maybe Penn State could do the inquiry into Pachauri, and the UN could finish it off for Mann at Penn State. That would be fair, wouldn’t it?
More siting problems in the news:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/02/26/climate-data-compromised-by-heat-sources/
The fine word mistake (miss take) has been destroyed by the irreparably corrupted social sciences, corrupted by the same agenda driven ideologue virus plaguing the phycical sciences. Mistake used to indicate inadvertence but social workers,( who developed the doctrine of the miscreant as a victim) co-opted the innocent word mistake to describe the act of a bank robber (who has been caught) or drug dealer or any other deliberate perpetrator.
This is the kind of mistake made in IPCC reports and the essential part of being caught fits perfectly with the meaning as applied to felons.
Off Topic but…Cudos for making the Fox News.Com Headline!
Can someone tell me why these meetings occur in Bali, Barcelona, Vienna, etc. etc.? These U.N. freeloading bureaucrats are having the time of their lives on our tax dollars for little worthwhile gain.
“Participants in the unprecedented meeting … were sworn to secrecy”
That is kinda the law on meetings about personell matters.
I suspect they want to salvate the UN and think sacrificing pachauri (choo choo) may do the trick. He could be a scape goat. The whole Climate mess is on trial.
Bingo!! And what is the damage? Bonus question for 500 dollars.
It is saving face, The loss of face or status is the greatest fear.
Is it possible to overdose on schadenfreude?
vukcevic (08:58:32) : That iceberg seems still at the “parking lot”.
vukcevic (08:58:32) :
HUGE ICEBERG BREAKS OFF ANTARCTICA
Oh great! Pachauri can now safely leave the IPCC because he can head-up the new UN panel to force the western nations to either glue the thing back or haul it to the Himalayas.
Well Engineer Pachauri- looks like your boiler’s about to explode, and the
Fireman and Brakeman just bailed….
Will this “independent inquiry” be the similar to the CRU “independent inquiry”? Enquiring minds would like to know…
A miracle! Huge iceberg breaks off from Antarctica and the BBC News went to great pains to inform us that…takes deep breath…GLOBAL WARMING ISN’T TO BLAME!
Gosh…
Oh no! Not my Love Guru!
Where am I gonna get smutty novels now????
Well, knowing the IPCC as I do I have to assume that the short list for Pachauri’s replacement is as follows: Al Gore or Phil Jones.
and call me a conspiracy theorist if you want but….
If I was a behind the scenes power broker at the UN, I wouldn’t just be planning to jettison Pachauri right now. I would ALSO be quietly looking around for his replacement. I would be seeking out climate scientists (several of them, I need lots of candidates to choose from) that I have some trust with and who have a known AGW bias, but aren’t discredited by some Mann or Jones type scandal. I’d quietly let them know that there’s a plumb job coming up in a year or two to replace Pachauri. I’d quietly let them know that the job will likely go to “someone like you” but that the “best” candidate would be “someone like you” but who had some sort of track record making them acceptable to both sides. Someone who could show that they were half way between the two camps. Someone who had a track record of trying to foster communication and trust between the two sides. That might not be you right now, but you could get yourself positioned over the next few months. Find some way to publicly establish that track record of outreach, and you could be the right man. Oops. Or woman.
Sound like anyone you know?
Someone floats Dr Curry for IPCC chair to replace Pachauri and I will just freak.
“crisis of confidence”
Maybe we shouldn’t worry too much about the environment on this planet; they’re obviously talking about the one that they live on.
——-
Mike Haseler (07:46:18) :
I read somewhere, possibly from Richard North, that most of the greenie NGO’s are now funded by the EU taxpayers, to the tune of half their budget in some cases. This is just organised crime.
The ICSU (whoever they are) thinks the IPCC is doing in pretty good job.
http://klimazwiebel.blogspot.com/2010/02/statement-by-icsu-on-controversy-around.html