EU backs IPCC report

Predictable, but what are they at?
NEW DELHI, Feb. 6: The European Union has come out in support of the controversy-ridden Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), chaired by Indian scientist Rajendra K Pachauri. It said that the row over misleading data cannot be the basis to challenge an IPCC document.

“We fully support the IPCC report,” Ms Teresa Ribera, Spain’s secretary of state for Climate Change and the president of EU council of environment ministers, said at a joint press conference with Belgian minister of climate and energy Paul Magnette here on Saturday. The IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report has drawn flak for suggesting that the Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035 due to global warming.
However, Ms Ribera conceded that adequate “quality control” of information is required for a scientific report of this nature. She followed it up by saying that her country and the EU are ready to offer their expertise in updating the methodology of the IPCC report.
“I personally wrote a letter to the chair of IPCC offering help to update and help improve these kinds of controls,” she said.
Asked about reports about attempts to move the climate talks to a forum other than the United Nations, Ms Ribera said any informal inputs were always welcome but they should not as a substitute to the process. However, she favoured informal talks among a group of nations such as the Brazil, South Africa, India, China (Basic) bloc. “Some times dialogue is simpler in smaller groups,” she said.
Ms Ribera maintained that the United Nations is the best forum to address climate change but she welcomed suggestions from informal groups such as Basic (Brazil, South Africa, India, China) as “some times dialogue is simpler in smaller groups”. Read more.