Dr Pachauri, who was referring to what is loosely being called "climagegate" where emails among scientists were hacked into and released on the Internet, showing that the scientists attempted to manipulate the figures on climate change, hiding raw data from researchers with opposing views. "Given the wide-ranging nature of change that is likely to be taken in hand, some naturally find it inconvenient to accept its inevitability," Dr Pachauri said, adding that multiple lines of evidence strongly support the work of the scientific community.

The emails sent out by scientists at University of East Anglia in the UK were hacked into by unknown persons, but the comments of manipulation have now been latched on to by climate sceptics who claim that human link to global warming is not robust enough.

The incident has cast a shadow on the IPCC’s working and the climate change conference, where officials have been under pressure to come out with explanation.

Agreeing that the IPCC has the responsibility to provide fair, comprehensive and objective assessment of climate change, Dr Pachauri said that the entire report writing process of the panel was subjected to "extensive and repeated review by experts as well as by governments." He said the IPCC has a record of "transparent and objective assessment stretching over 21 years".

Later, conference president Connie Hedegaard, reacting to the email leakage, said that even the most sceptic of scientists should know that there are several reasons why action should be taken to mitigate effects of climate change. She said she was certain that the leakage would not have an effect on the conference.

US deputy special envoy for climate change Jonathan Pershing said that the issue would turn out to be a "small blip" on the history of the climate negotiations and the they would "virtually have to effect at all". Mr Pershing said that he was involved wi-th writing one of the chapt-ers of the IPCC and the science behind it was "incredibly robust".

Calling for large-scale mitigation action by the delegates at the conference, Dr Pachauri said even the desirable temperature rise of less than 2ºC by 2015 would me-an a sea level rise of be-tween 0.4 and 1.4 metres fr-om thermal expansion al-one. "This increase, added to the effect of melting of snow and ice across the globe, could submerge several small island states and Bangladesh." He said the evidence was "overwhelming that the world would benefit greatly from early action and that delay would only lead to costs in economic and human terms that would become progressively high". He said in the absence of mitigation policies, sea ice would possibly disappear by the latter part of the 21st century and there would be an increase in tropical cyclone intensity as well as elimination of the Greenland ice sheet leading to 7-metre rise in sea level.