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Proposed reforms for the Panel on Climate Change

The Inter Academy Council (IAC) has issued a report calling for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to introduce a number of changes in response to a series of recent controversies.

DAVID SEGARRA | SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2010

The Inter Academy Council (IAC) has released a report calling for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to adopt a series of changes "if it wants to maintain the value of its assessments for society" in the words of the president of the IAC, Harold T. Shapiro. These changes refer to various aspects, including the need for a more stringent review of their reports, according to the report Climate Change Assessments, Review of the Processes & Procedures of the IPCC.

This paper does not question the value of the IPCC reports or the work it has carried out, but it does suggest the adoption of more precise control mechanisms when drafting the reports. The United Nations, for its part, has stated that the IPCC’s scientific findings on climate change remain valid.

The IAC considers, first, that the IPCC should appoint an executive director (who, among other functions, can speak on behalf of the organization) as well as bring in external members to join the Executive Committee so as to ensure its independence and credibility.

The IAC also came to the conclusion that while the IPCC review process is rigorous, there is a need for compliance review procedures to minimize errors. Legitimate disputes should be reflected in the reports and all alternative views should be documented. It also considers that there is a need to be more precise as to what the benchmarks are for assessing the sources of scientific information (especially in the case of the so-called “gray literature”). The panel also needs to improve the treatment of uncertainty and the degree of agreement among experts.

The main criticisms focus on the slow and inadequate response of the IPCC to criticism
The main criticisms of the report of the IAC focus on the slow and inadequate response of the IPCC to criticism. Therefore, it is considered necessary to implement a "communications strategy" that encourages proper transparency and rapid response to crises.

Disputes under suspicion

Will these recommendations manage silence the controversies surrounding the IPCC over the last few months? The 2007 Report, the latest published work of the panel, has been the subject of several controversies. On the one hand, a series of e-mails sent and received by the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, obtained via a leak, were used by climate change skeptics to question the validity of the information used by the panel’s scientists. Two independent investigations conducted in the UK found no evidence of tampering of data, and Professor Phil Jones has been rehabilitated in a new position as director of research at this university.

Secondly, a number of minor errors, like the claim that glaciers in the Himalayas would (incorrectly) disappear by 2035, has fed the controversy over the reliability of the predictions of the IPCC. And even though there exists the suspicion that the groups who deny climate change lie behind these controversies, the general impression is that the IPCC may not be performing its job as well as it could. Therefore, the Report of the IAC can help relocate the role of this initiative by the World Meteorological Organization and United Nations Environment Programme. Now, the IPCC must decide at its October meeting in South Korea if it will adopt these recommendations.

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