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.
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For a complete report, read the Telegraph article
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Pach speaks!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704231304575092160908991100.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
I hope he returns to Almora and soon!
Pachauri doesn’t care about any of this. Just look at him. He knows he is one lucky bfugly dude that got to fly around the world getting as much green trim as he could handle. He knew he was on borrowed time years ago.
Gore begins subtle shift to resource depletion arguments, cherry picks flaws in IPCC docs to respond to in Op-Ed appearing in Sun. Feb. 28th NYT’s at http://nyti.ms/a0ucIY
Globally, most glaciers are reported to be diminishing more or less rapidly.
Reports of “disappearing glaciers” have come from many parts of High Asia.
However, this is not the case in the upper Indus and upper Yarkand River
basins. Here, the glaciers have been holding their own for several decades
and recently, in the Karakoram Himalaya, many have started thickening and
advancing. Not only is this opposite to the broader picture for Eurasian
glaciers, but also to what had been happening to Karakoram glaciers.
Through most of the twentieth century they too diminished and retreated.
There is no question that today’s behaviour is a regionally distinct response
to climate change. It may sound like good news, given the dominant lament
for the loss of glaciers, but that too would be misleading. Advancing glaciers
bring dangers as well.
http://www.chinadialogue.net/UserFiles/File/Glacier_Changes_2010_CD_ver4.pdf