Editorial: Growing cool on IPCC

OPINION: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has done itself no favours in recent months.

Though the United Nations body keeps thousands of scientists and reviewers in steady work, some very unscientific blunders have come to light recently and brought the organisation's credibility into increasing question. This is not to say that man-made climate change is not happening. There is a huge amount of evidence to say that it is – and, further, that it threatens the planet unless current trends are reversed. However, any sloppiness, any discredited work published under its auspices or even linked loosely to it, and its important work becomes that much harder to sell.

At the very least, the rows around the threat to Himalayan glaciers, damaging emails stolen from the University of East Anglia, and false claims of Amazon forest destruction, raise questions about the IPCC's leadership. It is worth remembering that chairman Rajendra Pachauri only got the job in 2002 after hardball lobbying by the George Bush administration. The man he replaced, Robert Watson, was seen by the US president and his advisers as "too aggressive" on climate change. Dr Watson was also regarded as very competent – something few are saying about Dr Pachauri today.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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