By Celsias Team
Posted on Sept. 1, 2010. Listed in:
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is in need of a major overhaul of procedures and management according to an independent report released by the InterAcademy Council (IAC), which represents the world's major science academies.
The IPCC was established by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization to asses climate change and provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic consequences.
With an increasing amount of public debate about the science of climate change and costs of curbing it, the IPCC has come under increased scrutiny, and controversies have erupted over its perceived impartiality toward climate policy and the accuracy of its reports. This controversy prompted U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and IPCC chair Rajendra K. Pachauri to issue a letter on March 10 this year requesting the IAC review IPCC and recommend ways to strengthen the processes and procedures by which future assessments are prepared.
While the IAC’s report found that the process used by the IPCC to produce its periodic assessment reports has been successful overall, the management structure needs to be reformed, and its procedures need to be strengthened so that it can better deal with increasingly complex climate assessments as well as the more intense public scrutiny coming from a world grappling with how best to respond to climate change.
“A wide variety of interests have entered the climate discussion, leading to greater overall scrutiny and demands from stakeholders. The IPCC must continue to adapt to these changing conditions in order to continue serving society well in the future,” says the report.
Among the biggest changes recommended by the report is the establishment of an executive committee for the panel to give it stronger leadership, a "rigorous conflict of interest policy" for that leadership and more rigorous review processes to deal with "grey literature" - material from non peer-reviewed sources.
Director at the Climate Change Research Institute, School of Government, at Wellington’s Victoria University, Professor Martin Manning, says most scientists will agree with the findings.
"Their report accepts that scientific understanding of climate change is developing rapidly and this means that the process for assessing it for policymakers needs to become more dynamic.”
Manning stresses the critical role government needs to play in helping to implement the recommendations made in the review.
“The review has not fully recognised that the IPCC process is controlled by what governments formally agree to in plenary sessions each year, and that there have been instances when this has specifically limited a broader communication strategy.”
This report was externally reviewed in draft form by 12 internationally renowned experts chosen for their diverse perspectives, technical knowledge, and geographical representation, in accordance with procedures approved by the IAC Board.
Read the report in full here.
