In a strong show of support that the beleaguered Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) needed desperately, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday backed the scientific conclusions of the UN panel and said "India has full confidence in the IPCC process and its leadership and will support it in every way that it can".

The Prime Minister said the IPCC's core message that greenhouse gas concentrations in atmosphere were leading to a change in climate was beyond dispute. "Some aspects of the science that is reflected in the work of the IPCC have faced criticism. But this debate does not challenge the core projections of the IPCC about the impact of greenhouse gas accumulations on temperature, rainfall and sea level rise," Manmohan Singh said, inaugurating the four-day Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) here.

The DSDS is an annual event organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), which is run by IPCC Chairman R K Pachauri.

The IPCC has come in for intense criticism from certain quarters following revelations that its claim on Himalayan glacier melt in its landmark 2007 report had been based on speculative science. A lot of the ire has been directed against Pachauri, who has been accused of using his position as IPCC chairman for personal gains. Pachauri has denied those allegations.

By reposing his government's faith in the IPCC and its leadership, Singh has sent a strong message that India does not agree with calls for resignation of Pachauri.

A number of other heads of states gathered at the occasion also backed IPCC. Amongst them were Prime Ministers of Bhutan, Norway, Greece and Finland.

"Those who took delight in chastising the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for its prediction on

the melting of Himalayan glaciers by 2035 missed the point... We in Bhutan feel and see for ourselves the rapid change in the surroundings," Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigme Thinley said.

Speaking about the Copenhagen Accord — the outcome of the climate change conference held in the Danish capital in December last year — Manmohan Singh described it as just a "catalogue of voluntary commitments" made by some countries and not a "negotiated set of legal obligations". But because of the limited scope of the accord, it was extremely important for all the countries to fulfill the commitments they have taken, he said.

"A modest accord that is fully implemented may be better than an ambitious one that falls seriously short of its targets. This is the lesson that was learnt with regard to the Kyoto Protocol," he said.