In an interview with the Guardian, Prof Jean-Pascal van Ypersele admitted the IPCC had been "naïve and incompetent" in dealing with the false claim that all Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035. He also accepted there "probably would be mistakes" in the even larger report due from the IPCC in 2013-14. But he emphasised that at a "difficult" plenary meeting in Korea earlier this month, the IPCC had immediately implemented some of the reforms recommended in a high-level independent report issued in August. He said the body would implement the rest of the reforms at the next meeting in May 2011, including a way to correct mistakes after publications and a future limit of one six-year term for the chair, currently Rajendra Pachauri.
"How could it simply be a coincidence that the 'climategate' emails are revealed two weeks before Copenhagen and that the mistake on the Himalayas is raised and transformed by some media into major error?" van Ypersele said. "I have a hard time imagining it could simply be a coincidence." Read the full report here.
Source: Damian Carrington in Brussels guardian.co.uk.
