Climategate: Ramesh for Indian IPCC

Taking a dig at the wrong projections by the UN body on climate change (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC) headed by India’s R K Pachauri on the Himalayan glaciers, Ramesh said the IPCC undoubtedly created scare and panic by not basing its warnings on science.

“There is a difference between climate science and climate evangelism,” he said, dubbing the IPCC predictions of Himalayan glacier meltdown by 2035 as misleading.

“Health of glaciers are cause for concern. They are melting, retreating, threatening our water security and we have to be cautious. But we are now setting up a National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology in Dehra Dun for monitoring, modelling and research,” he told Times Now.

“A country like India cannot depend on only IPCC,” he said adding that the IPCC took published literature as basis of warnings and so made goof-ups on predictions about Himalayan glacier, Amazon and snow peaks.

He said he nevertheless has respect for IPCC, a body of 2000 scientists, but India is setting up something like Indian Network on Comprehensive Climate Change Assessment (INCCA).

He INCCA is not formed to rival IPCC but will have its own investigation and in November this year there would be a report on its first assessment.

R K Pachauri, who heads IPCC, is under fire from British media, Indian government and environmentalists for wrong predictions on the Himalayan glacier meltdown that triggered panic.

The warning by Nobel Prize winning IPCC was based on report in a magazine based on the interview of an Indian scientist who later denied he predicted any date.

Several other climate change impact reports by IPCC are also under scrutiny and there is a clamour for the resignation of Pachauri who so far has refused to step down.