Errors in an influential report on global climate change do not make the report’s conclusions invalid or biased, a group of 52 leading Dutch academics say in an open letter on Wednesday.

The mistakes are being used by some to discredit all climate science, the academics say in their letter. And they reject the way scientists are being dismissed as the ‘climate mafia’ by some MPs.
The IPCC report, which dates from 2007, includes a claim that the Himalayan glaciers will have melted by 2035 but that now appears to have been based on miscalculations dating back to 1999.

Mistakes
The report also states some 55% of the Netherlands is below sea level, but according to the national statistics office CBS that figure should be 20%.
These errors have to be acknowledged but do not take away from the fact that mankind is ‘very probably changing the climate, with eventual far-reaching effects’, the academics state.
The two errors led Dutch environment minister Jacqueline Cramer to say she would not accept any more mistakes.
News magazine Elsevier reports on Wednesday that only one of the 110 Dutch scientists and experts who worked on parts of the IPPC report is a climate change sceptic. Many have close connections to environmental lobby groups, Elsevier said.