Governments asked Ban Ki-moon and IPCC for external review
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Chair Rajendra Pachauri have asked the InterAcademy Council (IAC), a group of the world’s leading science academies, to review the scientific procedures of the Geneva-based IPCC. IPCC was created in 1986 but came into the limelight in 2007 when it won the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with former US Vice-president Al Gore for work on climate change. The group has come under pressure since the news surfaced in recent months that its 2007 report on climate change contained scientific errors which were not caught in the approvals and editing process.
The two men asked for the review after IPCC member governments requested it.
In a statement issued as part of a press conference in New York to announce the review, the IPCC and the Ban’s office stated that:
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Geneva-based IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), appears unready to bow to pressure to step down, if comments made to the BBC Friday 5 February are any indication.
”‘There is one mistake that occurred unfortunately, and we have clearly accepted that; we have expressed regret that it took place,’” the BBC quotes him as saying. “‘But there’s a huge volume of science over there – I mean, the IPCC’s fourth assessment report is a massive piece of work – and I think all of what we have said over there is totally valid.’”
Pachauri is in Delhi, India, for an IPCC sustainability conference.
Researchers and others in the climate change field are calling on Pachauri to accept personal responsibility for a significant error that was part of a recent IPCC report on climate change, which stated incorrectly that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035.
Lumding Himalaya. Photos by photographer Jef Maion. www.maion.com
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Himalayan glaciers are under threat to melt by 2035, according to a widely-read scientific report on the state of the world’s climate. This has now been revealed to be inaccurate, after news organizations, including the BBC, pointed out the error. The report was produced by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The report contains “poorly substantiated estimates of rate of recession and date for the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers”, according to the IPCC website 20 January.
Greenland glacier from the air (photo E Wallace, October 2009)
Greenland’s ice mass is melting at a quicker pace than previously believed and consequently adding more water to the oceans, reports Science magazine 13 November. The increased run-off will cause the sea-level to rise by more than was estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 2007 projection for 2100.
Altogether some 1,500 gigatonnes of ice melted between 2000 and 2008, the researchers say, contributing about 4.1 millimetres to sea levels. The ice melt is equally divided between increased run-off and precipitation on the one hand, and ice dynamics, meaning faster-moving glaciers, on the other. Since 2006 ice melting in Greenland has accelerated and contributes 0.75mm per year to the global rise in sea levels.
New measurements have allowed the team of researchers led by Michiel van den Broeke of Utrecht University in the Netherlands to quantify more precisely the sources of the melt since 2000. Several warm summers have increased the melting of the ice mass faster than can be fixed during the winters by snowing and refreezing.
The scientist confirmed their data using GRACE, a space-based system that detects subtle changes in the earth’s gravitational field due to shifts, such as ice-melt, in the earth’s mass. BBC, TSR
Juanes, Cuban Peace Without Borders Concert (image: 4VFnet)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Colombian superstar, 17-time Grammy award winning musician Juanes, is giving his voice to the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-free World that takes place in Cartagena, Colombia 29 November-4 December. Juanes, who has sold more than 9 million albums worldwide, in 2006 became the first musician ever to perform in the European Parliament’s debating chamber, as part of the European Union’s commitment to eradicate landmines. He organized the Peace Without Borders concert in September 2009 in Cuba, which Entertainment Daily called “the largest open air gig since the 1959 Revolution”, with half a million people attending.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – If you’re too busy to dive into the complex topics surrounding climate change, under discussion in Geneva 31 August to 4 September during the third World Climate Conference in 30 years, consider these facts:
- Carbon sinking: any natural store of carbon that can absorb CO2 from the air, such as forests, grasslands and oceans. (WWF jargon buster & acronyms, climate change)
- Zebra mussels, tiny freshwater mollusks, invaded US waterways in the early 1980s, imported from Russia, and they now post water management problems in many areas, complicating existing problems due to changes in water levels and quality. (Boston.com and Trout Unlimited)
- Globally, 10 of the hottest years on record have occurred since 1990 (records began in 1861)(Cambridgeshire CC, UK)
- Read more…
Not just H2O in those clouds
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government is committed to cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 20 percent compared to 1990, and a proposed new law sent to Parliament 28 August outlines how it wants to achieve that goal.
The measures proposed are to:
Sea levels could rise 7-82cm, and endanger low-lying regions like the Netherlands and delta regions such as Bangladesh and small ocean islands, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience in its July 2009 issue. The findings are broadly in line with Geneva-based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) findings. The study’s author, Mark Siddall of the University of Bristol warns that the figures are averages and that regional variations could be higher. Related: Le Monde (Fre)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss government will be pushing to strengthen Geneva’s role as the global centre for climate information when it participates in the Third World Climate Conference in Geneva 31 August to 4 September 2009. The conference will establish a system to improve the availability of climate information and predictions for government, the private sector, aid and other organizations.
Switzerland “considers climate information to be a key tool to strengthen society, particularly in developing countries, against the socio-economic consequences of climate change. Switzerland’s medium-term aim is to see the creation of the Global Framework for Climate Services and its embedding at the WMO (World Meteorological Organization). This would also serve to strengthen Geneva as a location for the coordination of future efforts in the dissemination of climate information,” Bern notes in a press release 25 June.
