Climate report error concerns minister

A mistake about melting glaciers in the last report by the international climate change body IPCC is ‘extremely worrying’, environment minister Jacqueline Cramer is quoted as saying by the Volkskrant on Wednesday.


The 2007 report 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. And one scientist has admitted the fact was included to put political pressure on world leaders to take action.
‘As a politician, I base myself on science,’ the minister said. ‘This hurts my trust in the IPCC.’
The minister said she wanted the IPCC to find out how the mistake occured. ‘I want to know how this procedural error happened. Are there more mistakes? We need clarity very quickly to remove any doubts.’
Climate change sceptics have seized on the mistake on one page of the 3,000-page report as a sign of sloppy work, the Volkskrant says.

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