Indonesia: The United Nations said Friday it would conduct an independent review of its Nobel prize-winning climate panel, whose credibility has been hit by errors in a key report on global warming.
The UN`s plan was announced as environmental experts at an international meeting hailed the opportunity to make progress on climate change after last year`s Copenhagen talks ended in chaos and urged India and China to come on board.
Demands have mounted for a major overhaul at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose chairman Rajendra Pachauri has also come under fire for his stewardship of the body and alleged conflict of interest.
UN Environment Programme spokesman Nick Nuttall said at the meeting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that a body appointed by independent scientists would be set up to "review and strengthen" the IPCC.
The world`s top climate science panel is made up of several thousand scientists tasked with vetting scientific knowledge on climate change and its impacts.
But its reputation was damaged by a warning in a major 2007 report that global warming could melt Himalayan glaciers by 2035, a claim that has been widely discredited and fuelled scepticism in some quarters about mankind`s role in climate change.
Ahead of the Copenhagen summit, the IPCC was also rocked by the leaking of emails between some of its scientists that, according to sceptics, showed data had been skewed to mask contradictions about the evidence for man-made global warming.
The Copenhagen Accord has also come under heavy fire, with some critics already saying it has no future just over two months after it was hastily drafted to stave off a fiasco.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa urged countries to regain public trust by injecting greater urgency into negotiations ahead of the UN climate summit in November in Mexico.
"The initial sentiment after Copenhagen was one of gloom. Two months after, things are not as gloomy as they look," he said at the gathering in Nusa Dua.
"Many of the participants recognised there is a lack of confidence and a trust deficit after Copenhagen... To regain political momentum to restart the negotiations, the process must be open, transparent and inclusive".
Departing UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said the meeting in the Mexican resort of Cancun offered a huge opportunity to put the operational framework proposed in Copenhagen in place.
"Everybody was disappointed about the Copenhagen meeting`s outcome but everybody wants to move forward," said de Boer.
"The Copenhagen Accord is a important political tool to invigorate the negotiations."
There were also pleas in Bali for more commitment from China and India on capping emissions, with their support seen as vital for a binding global accord.
The Copenhagen summit in December pledged to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) along with billions of dollars in financing.
But China and India, which are among the world`s top emitters, failed to explicitly endorse the agreement.
"If we want to have a good outcome, we need China and India onboard," said Indonesia`s Natalegawa.
Beijing`s top climate change negotiator said it had no intention of capping greenhouse gas emissions for the time being, state media reported Thursday.
As an example of ways in which the Copenhagen agreement can be put into practice, French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo cited a meeting planned in Paris on preserving forests to combat pollution.
Countries with large tropical forests will meet March 11 to discuss a project that aims to make polluters pay to preserve forests.
"It will be the first post-Copenhagen Accord`s application," he said.
In a message to the Bali meeting, UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called for nations not to be swayed by the IPCC controversy.
"I urge you to reject the last ditch attempts by climate sceptics to derail your negotiations by exaggerating shortcomings on the IFCC Fourth Assessment Report," he said.
Bureau Report
