General

Climate change panel must modernize: head

Even so, its conclusions remain sound, he says

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, should learn from its mistakes, says its head, Rajendra Pachauri, admitting it wasn’t prepared to face recent criticism. Even so, despite making an error over Himalayan glaciers in its 2007 report, Pachauri said its basic conclusions are still sound, the BBC reports. “We have not been effective at telling the public, ‘yes, we made a mistake’, but that does not change the fact that the glaciers are melting,” he said. The IPCC’s task is becoming more complex, he said, noting that the number of peer-reviewed academic papers it must account for has skyrocketed, and that human error is beginning to creep in. Ministers at the UN Environment Programme’s governing council have said allegations about IPCC errors threaten to undermine its reputation, even though governments use it to create their own climate policies.

BBC News

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