Thirty-two scientists from India have been selected by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to contribute to the fifth edition of its assessment report that is known to be the most exhaustive analysis of existing knowledge in climate science. The report is slated to come out in 2013-14.
The IPCC has finalised 831 scientists and experts from around the world from about 3000 applications. The assessment report is divided into three working groups: Working Group-I focuses on the science behind climate change, Working Group-II assesses the impacts and adaptation strategies and vulnerability while Working Group-III covers mitigation responses.
For the fourth assessment report, that had come out in 2007 and is now the basis of all global efforts to tackle climate change, 23 scientists from India had contributed. Only eight have been selected again for the fifth assessment report.
Among the omissions is Prof Murari Lal, whose was the lead author for the chapter that had the controversial prediction about the Himalayan glaciers. Almost 60 per cent of the scientists selected are new to the IPCC process and about one fourth of the total are women, the IPCC said in a statement.
While the fourth assessment report attracted a lot of criticism for including controversial science, the IPCC chairman R K Pachauri has written to all selected scientists saying, “The success of the IPCC has resulted in much more focused attention on the work of the panel and much closer scrutiny of every word that we publish, which imposes on us a heavy responsibility to see that errors of any kind are completely eliminated.”
He advised all of them to keep a distance from the media to avoid controversies.
