Political alterations to
IPCC Climate Report
Recent news on energy

Harvard professor Robert Stavins has spoken of how government officials forced him to change an important scientific report on climate change for political reasons. He has described the interference in an online letter.

He said that the officials, representing all the main countries and regions of the world, altered the report at a meeting in Berlin.

Prof Stavins pointed out that the intervention amounted to a serious conflict of interest between scientists and governments.

He was one of two co-ordinating lead authors of the report, published by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

His chapter of the 2,000-page original report discussed the ways countries can co-operate to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Prof Stavins said the government officials in Berlin made big changes to the report’s "summary for policymakers".

This is the condensed version used by the world’s media and politicians.

Three quarters of the original version of the document ended up being deleted.

IPCC reports are supposed to be independent. They contain scientific advice for governments around the world, and they are used to help decide energy policies.

Full (journalist) report here .

The online letter is on www.robertstavinsblog.org

Part of it says ......government representatives worked to suppress text that might jeopardize their negotiating stances in international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).



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