Rajender Pachauri, the embattled chief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, escaped direct indictment in the UN’s review of his panel’s assessments, only because he was not up for scrutiny personally.
But there was enough in the panel’s findings and recommendations submitted
on Monday to suggest Pachauri runs a bad ship – it lacks transparency and, worst, it relies on unsubstantiated scientific claims. It found merit in many of the widely know criticism of the IPCC’s assessments – such as the alarmist meltdown of the Himalayan glaciers – and allegations of conflict of interest against Pachauri. But it did not directly indict Pachauri or call for his dismissal. “We did not evaluate or attempt to evaluate anyone in the IPCC leadership,” Harold Shapiro, chairperson of InterAcademy Council’s Committee to Review IPCC, said at the UN when asked about Pachauri’s role.
Shapiro’s panel reviewed the functioning and assessments of the IPCC following mounting criticism of the climate change panel the world over.