UN to launch review of IPCC, as senior diplomats downplay Mexico hopes

The UN will attempt to draw a line under the scandal that has enveloped its Independent Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) with the appointment of a new independent board to review the panel's work.

The IPCC has been under fire from both climate sceptics and some climate scientists after it emerged that a number of mistakes had been included in its most recent report. Most notably, the report contained a claim that Himalayan glaciers could vanish by 2035, a prediction that climate scientists have subsequently confirmed is virtually impossible.

The revelation prompted a flurry of criticism from climate sceptics, while a number of senior scientists have expressed concern about the IPCC's processes and its use of non-peer-reviewed sources, with some calling for the resignation of the panel's chair Rajendra Pachauri.

Some scientists have defended the IPCC, noting that it has been guilty of a very small number of mistakes as part of a review that runs to hundreds of pages, and there is general agreement that the mistakes do not affect the panel's central assessment that temperatures are rising as a result of man's activity.

However, behind the scenes a number of senior figures are known to be furious that a handful of "glaring errors" have been allowed to undermine their work, with several scientists even considering boycotting the panel.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the UN Environment Programme in Indonesia, spokesman Nick Nuttall told reporters that a formal review of the IPCC is to be announced next week.

The review will be undertaken by a new independent panel, which the UN will expect to report back by the summer.

"It will be senior scientific figures," he said of the make-up of the panel. "I can't name who they are right now. It should do a review of the IPCC, produce a report by, say, August and there is a plenary of the IPCC in South Korea in October. The report will go there for adoption."

He said there was general agreement between countries on the need for a fully independent panel of scientists that will not be appointed by the IPCC. "I think we are bringing some level of closure to this issue," he said.

The news comes at the end of a bad week for the international negotiations to agree a global climate change treaty that has seen a number of key diplomats predict that a deal will not be finalised this year.

Following the end of last year's Copenhagen summit, world leaders insisted they remained committed to delivering a legally binding treaty at the next major climate change summit in Mexico at the end of this year.

However, following the announcement that he is to step down in July, the UN's top climate change official Yvo de Boer expressed doubts that his successor will be able to deliver a finalised treaty this year.

"I don't think we will get a legally binding treaty in 2010," he told the Guardian, adding that while "very significant" progress had been made at last year's Copenhagen summit, there was still "absolutely miles to go" before a full agreement can be reached.

His comments were echoed by China's climate change ambassador Yu Qingtai, who hinted this week that there is unlikely to be a break in the deadlock between industrialised and developing nations that marred the Copenhagen summit.

"There may be some adjustments and shifts in the positions and tactics of the various sides, but I personally believe that on some core issues, the positions of the major parties will not undergo any substantive changes," Yu said at a meeting in Beijing on China's climate change policies. "The progress of the international negotiations faces very many difficulties."

He also confirmed that developing countries remain angry at industrialised nations' failure to commit to deeper emissions cuts. "I believe that there won't be any substantive change in the developed countries' settled policy of shifting blame to the developing countries," he said. "They will continue pressuring the developing countries to shoulder unreasonable responsibilities."