Key to reasserting the authority of climate science is making sure that the scientists' reports are as scrupulous and valid as possible. For this reason the United Nations environment programme commissioned an independent review of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and its reports.

In particular the review was prompted by the IPCC's unfounded assertion that glaciers in the Himalayas were melting so fast that they would disappear by 2035.

The review has been conducted by the InterAcademy Council (IAC), an organisation of world science bodies, which released its report on August 30.

It says that the means by which the IPCC produced its periodic assessment reports has been overall successful, but that it needs to reform its management structure and strengthen its procedures.

Its president, Harold Shapiro, said it needed "a greater commitment to openness".

The IPCC had quickly admitted the glacier error, but placed it in context as just one in a report thousands of pages long. The IAC says that is not good enough and calls for stronger enforcement of the panel's scientific review procedures to minimize future mistakes. It also calls for:

  • establishing an executive committee to act on the panel's behalf
  • the committee should include individuals from outside the climate science community
  • the chair should be replaced more often
  • greater transparency would include ways of ensuring there is no conflict of interest
  • stronger enforcement of existing review procedures to minimise errors
  • greater consistency in characterising uncertainty in the science
  • a better communications strategy and more rapid and thoughtful responses to crises that are scientifically based, but meaningful.

Since its publication there have been renewed calls for the resignation of IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri. These have come in particular from sceptics and the right-wing press, who have repeated unsubstantiated and unproven claims that Pachauri has benefited financially from carbon trading and lives a lavish lifestyle in New Delhi.

This is untrue, and he is still in post with no intention of resigning, saying that he wants to stay on to implement the changes in procedure.

Rajendra Pachauri, 70, has held this position since 2002, and is in the second of his six year tenures. He is also the head of Yale's Climate and Energy Institute and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with Al Gore in 2007.

The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme to inform policy decisions through periodic assessments of what is known about the physical scientific aspects of climate change, its global and regional impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation.

Representatives of 194 participating governments make up the Panel, which sets the scope of the assessments, elects the Bureau that oversees them, and approves the Summaries for Policymakers that accompany the massive assessment reports themselves, which are prepared by thousands of scientists who volunteer for three Working Groups.

The IAC report is expected to be considered at the 32nd Plenary Session of the IPCC in Busan, South Korea, Oct. 11-14.

It is available online at http://reviewipcc.interacademycouncil.net/.