UN climate panel faces new controversy

H S Rao
London, Jan 24 (PTI) The United Nations panel of
climate scientist, headed by India's Rajendra Pachauri faces
new controversy for wrongly linking global warming to a rise
in natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods.

According to The Sunday Times, the panel based the
claims on an unpublished report that had not been subjected to
routine scientific scrutiny - and ignored warnings from
scientific advisers. The report's author later withdrew the
claim because the evidence was too weak.
The link was central to demands at last month's
Copenhagen climate summit by African nations for compensation
of USD 100 billion from the rich nations blamed for creating
the most emissions.
According to the newspaper, the panel knew in 2008
that the link could not be proved but did not alert world
leaders.
Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change minister,
has suggested British and overseas floods - such as those in
Bangladesh in 2007 - could be linked to global warming.
US President Barack Obama said last autumn: "More
powerful storms and floods threaten every continent."
In another report, The Sunday Telegraph said the
scientist whose report originally claimed that Himalayan
glaciers could disappear by 2035, has for the past two years
been working as a senior employee of The Energy and Resources
Institute, (TERI) the Delhi-based company of which Dr Pachauri
is director-general. (MORE) PTI HSR
MYR


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