IPCC Secretariat

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PRESS RELEASE

Scientific Academy to Conduct Independent Review of the Intergovernmental Panel 

on Climate Change’s Processes and Procedures at Request of United Nations and 

IPCC 

Geneva, Switzerland – March 10, 2010 – The United Nations Secretary General and the 

Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced today that 

they asked the InterAcademy Council (IAC) to conduct an independent review of the IPCC’s 

processes and procedures to further strengthen the quality of the Panel’s reports on climate 

change. The IAC is the umbrella organization for various national academies of science 

from countries around the world.

The review will examine every aspect of how the IPCC’s reports are prepared, including the 

use of non-peer reviewed literature and the reflection of diverse viewpoints. The review will 

also examine institutional aspects, including management functions as well as the panel’s 

procedures for communicating its findings with the public.

“The IPCC’s mandate is to provide objective scientific assessments for decision-makers,” 

said IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri, Ph.D. “The IPCC stands firmly behind the rigor 

and reliability of its Fourth Assessment Report from 2007, but we recognize that we can 

improve. We have listened and learned from our critics, and we intend to take every action 

we can to ensure that our reports are as robust as possible.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Dr. Pachauri formally requested the IAC to conduct 

the review after the proposal to carry out the review was communicated to IPCC member 

governments. The decision to engage the IAC was supported by the Executive Director of 

UNEP and the Secretary General of WMO. 

“I am very grateful to the Secretary General’s unwavering support, not only in jointly 

requesting the IAC to undertake this review, but for his steadfast support of the IPCC and 

climate change science,” Dr. Pachauri said. 

Christopher Field, Ph.D., Co-chair of IPCC Working Group II, said: “We expect the 

recommendations from the IAC’s review to inform how the IPCC prepares its fifth major 

assessment of global climate change, due to be published in 2013-2014. Meanwhile, the 

conclusions from the IPCC’s 2007 report remain entirely valid: The climate is changing due 

to human activity, and the effects are already being felt around the globe. If anything, more 

recent data indicate that the IPCC’s 2007 assessment underestimated the degree to which 

human activity is changing our climate.”

Dr. Field is also founding director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global 

Ecology, professor of biological sciences at Stanford University and faculty director of 

Stanford's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve.
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The review will be led by the IAC co-chairs Robbert Dijkgraaf, Ph.D., president of the Royal 

Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science, and Professor Lu Yongxiang, president of the 

Chinese Academy of Sciences. The IAC will conduct its work independently according to its 

procedures for carrying out expert studies. The international experts who serve on IAC 

studies are not paid for their participation and are pro bono volunteers. 

A copy of the IPCC’s correspondence to the IAC requesting the review and outlining the 

scope of work can be found at www.ipcc.ch.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The IPCC is an interdisciplinary and intergovernmental body comprised of more than 190 

participating countries. It mobilizes scientific experts from around the world to carry out 

assessments of global climate science based on the available relevant literature. 

Thousands of scientists from all over the world contribute to the IPCC reports without 

receiving payment for their work. The members of the IPCC Bureau, including the IPCC 

Chair, serve in their expert capacity and are not paid by the IPCC. Rigorous review is an 

essential part of the process, broadening the set of individuals contributing and ensuring an 

objective and comprehensive assessment of current information. 

For the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, released in 2007, 450 scientists from 130 

countries served as lead authors. Another 800 served as contributing authors. More than 

2,500 experts provided more than 90,000 review comments. 

The InterAcademy Council

The 18-member InterAcademy Council Board is composed of presidents of 15 academies of 

science and equivalent organizations representing Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, 

France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and 

the United States.

It also includes the African Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences for the 

Developing World (TWAS) as well as representatives of the InterAcademy Panel (IAP) of 

scientific academies, the International Council of Academies of Engineering and 

Technological Sciences (CAETS), and the InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP) of medical 

academies. 

The IAC Secretariat is hosted by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 

Amsterdam.

Contacts:

IPCC Secretariat

Tel: +41 22 730 8208/8254/8284

Fax: +41 22 730 8025/8013

Email: IPCC-Media@wmo.int

Website: http://www.ipcc.ch