Pachauri to stay despite IPCC report row

New Delhi: After a string of scandals on "incorrect" reports - some respite for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman Rajendra Pachauri. He will stay on as the chairman of the UN Climate panel. An UN probe into the working of the IPCC called for a total review of the report.

Pachauri on Monday said he would not quit despite an independent review finding flaws in its structure and suggesting shortening the chair's 12-year term limit.

Though Pachauri stays on as chairman for now, the head of the UN investigating team Harold Shapiro, made it clear the IPCC's image had taken a beating. He also said that there could be a leadership change - hinting that Pachauri's as head of the IPCC may be numbered.

"I think the errors made, did dent the credibility of the process, there is no question about it, and trust is something that you have to earn every year. You don't build up trust, you have to re-earn it for the chair," said chair of IAC Committee to Review IPCC Harold Shapiro.

'An organization like this needs to have its leadership constantly changed to increase the vitality here. And we were not at all focused on the IPCC chair in making that recommendation. We made it for the eight senior people in the organisation and not particularly for the chair," said Shapiro.

Earlier, chairman of the IPCC Rajendra Pachauri told CNN-IBN in April 2010 that he has a task to complete and he certainly won't quit.

"I have a task. I have a mission to finish the fifth assessment report and I am certainly not going to quit," said Rajendra Pachauri.

On Monday, at a meeting of the Inter Academy Council in New York the Council has decided not to take any action against Pachauri. They have acknowledged that there were some errors in the IPCC reports.

The Review panel suggested - a fundamental reform in the climate panel's structure, including appointing of an executive director to be at the helm of its affairs. The report said the 12-year limit for the chair of the IPCC was too long and should be shortened. It called for an overhaul of the panel's management, including the creation of an executive committee that would include people from outside the IPCC. It also recommended replacing the top eight officials responsible for producing the United Nations reports every seven years or so.

The IPCC was widely criticized after admitting its 2007 global warming report wrongly said Himalayan glaciers would vanish by 2035 and that it overstated how much of the Netherlands is below sea level.

The review panel suggested that the climate panel make predictions only when solid scientific evidence was in place.

So while, Pachauri will continue for now as chairperson, what remains to be seen is whether any of these actions will lead to better climate science and more accurate findings of the impact of climate change by the IPCC.

The next IPCC report on climate change will be published in 2013 and 2014.

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