Shake up for UN climate panel

Updated August 31, 2010 13:03:22

A shake-up has been recommended for the United Nations' climate panel, the body that came under fire after a series of leaked emails revealed some data, by some of its members, was seen to be skewed.

A new report is recommending changes to the way the UN's climate body is run and the way its science is presented. The recommendations have been released at the United Nations in New York.

Presenter: Kim Landers
Speakers: Professor Harold Shapiro, Princeton University; Rajendra Pachauri, IPCC's current chairman

KIM LANDERS: The UN's climate panel, known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has been under enormous scrutiny.

In 2007 it asserted that climate change was already hurting the planet, helping to increase pressure for global action to limit carbon emissions.

Then in the run-up to last year's highly anticipated climate summit in Copenhagen, it was rocked by what became known as the 'Climategate' scandal, involving leaked emails which critics say showed panel members had skewed data.

The United Nations ordered a review and now that five-month study, by a group called the InterAcademy Council, an organisation of the world's science academies, has been finished.

Professor Harold Shapiro from Princeton University chaired the review.

HAROLD SHAPIRO: The IPCC has been successful overall but fundamental changes are necessary to ensure its continuing success.

KIM LANDERS: Those changes include setting up an executive committee to replace the panel's largely part-time structure, checks on conflicts of interest by board members and stricter guidelines on source material.

One of the climate panel's most glaring errors came when it claimed that the Himalayan glaciers could be lost by 2035, an assessment later traced to a magazine article.

Professor Shapiro says that's just one example that has dented the panel's credibility.

HAROLD SHAPIRO: It came from just not paying close enough attention to what reviewers said about that example. It just didn't follow through carefully enough on what review editors had commented. There were a number of review editors or reviewers that pointed out that this didn't seem quite right to them and that just was just not followed through.

KIM LANDERS: The review has also called for changes to the climate panel's leadership, including shorter limits on the terms of the panel's chairman.

The IPCC's current chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, won't speculate about how that affects his future.

RAJENDRA PACHAURI: This will be debated by all the governments of the world and they will then decide what's to be implemented, when it is to be implemented. So in a sense I'm in no position to speculate on what that decision would be.

KIM LANDERS: This review focused mostly on the structure of the UN's climate change panel, and not the science it's been carrying out. Dr Pachauri insists that the core assertion that the world is heating up has not been challenged.

RAJENDRA PACHAURI: By overwhelming consensus the scientific community agrees that climate change is real. Greenhouse gases have increased markedly as a result of human activities.

KIM LANDERS: The UN's climate panel will meet again in South Korea in October and Dr Pachauri says member nations will decide then whether to implement these recommendations.