Pachauri won`t apologise, admits IPCC's credibility damaged

London, Feb 3 (PTI) Top Indian scientist Rajendra
Pachauri has refused to apologise for a false claim made in a
landmark report by the UN climate change panel headed by him
that Himalayan glaciers could melt away by 2035, even as he
admitted that the mistake had damaged the body's credibility.
"You can't expect me to be personally responsible for
every word in a 3,000-page report," Pachauri said in an
interview to the 'Guardian', asserting that he would not
resign.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
has already issued a statement that expressed regret for the
mistake, but Pachauri said a personal apology would be a
"populist" step.
"I don't do too many populist things, that's why I'm so
unpopular with a certain section of society," he told the
paper.
Pachauri, however, admitted that the mistake had
seriously damaged the IPCC's credibility and boosted the
efforts of climate sceptics.
"It was an isolated mistake, down to human error and
totally out of character" for the panel, he said.
But, Pachauri said "it does not undermine the basic truth
that human activity is causing temperatures to rise."
Pachauri's comments came even as a report about e-mails
stolen from the University of East Anglia showed how climate
scientists acted to keep research papers they did not like out
of academic journals. (More) PTI