Ramesh took a dig at the wrong projections on the Himalayan glaciers by the IPCC headed by India's RK Pachauri, saying climate science and climate evangelism are not the same.
India would have its own body to assess the impact of climate change on Himalayan glaciers, environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced today, adding it cannot depend only on the IPCC's projections after the "goof-up" by the UN body.
Announcing the setting up of the National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology at Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Ramesh took a dig at the wrong projections on the Himalayan glaciers by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) headed by
India's RK Pachauri, saying climate science and climate evangelism are not the same.
Ramesh said the IPCC undoubtedly created scare and panic by not basing its warnings on science.
"There is a fine line between climate science and climate evangelism. I am all for climate science but not for climate evangelism. I think people misused the IPCC report," 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 glaciers, Amazon and snow peaks.
Ramesh said he nevertheless has respect for IPCC, a body of 200 scientists, but India is setting up something like Indian Network on Comprehensive Climate Change Assessment (INCCA).
He said IPCC's weakness was that it didn't do original research and derived assessments from published literature. "India is a large country... we can't depend only on IPCC," Ramesh said.
Giving details, Ramesh said the Indian Network on Comprehensive Climate Change Assessment has got 125 research institutions from across the country. The first climate change assessment from this body would be brought out in November this year, he added.
"We will have international collaborations. It's a kind of an Indian IPCC and not a rival to the IPCC. We will do our own assessment," he added.
The assessment would look at four sectors — agriculture, health, water and forests — and four regions. These would be Himalayan ecosystems, coastal areas, western ghats and the northeast.
This will demonstrate India's commitment to climate science, he said.
Pachauri is under fire from British media, Indian government and environmentalists for wrong predictions on the Himalayan glacier meltdown.
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.
Pachauri also faced fresh pressure to step down with one of the leading figures in the environment movement saying that the Nobel Prize winning body needs a new leader to regain its credibility.
Director of Greenpeace UK, John Sauven said Pachauri made a flawed judgement by not registering the mistake made by the
IPCC which came to light ahead of the Copenhagen conference.
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