Stricter controls urged for the UN's climate body

The UN's climate science body needs stricter checks to prevent damage to the organisation's credibility, an independent review has concluded.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has faced mounting pressure over errors in its last major assessment of climate science in 2007.The review said guidelines were needed to ensure IPCC leaders were not seen as advocating specific climate policies.It also urges transparency and suggests changes to the management of the body.The IPCC has admitted it made a mistake in its 2007 assessment in asserting that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. But it says this error did not change the broad picture of man-made climate change.

The review committee stressed that previous IPCC science assessments had been successful overall, but it said the body's response to revelations of errors in its 2007 report had been "slow and inadequate".

Critics have previously called on the IPCC's chair, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, to resign. Responding to the report, Dr Pachauri said he wanted to stay to implement changes at the organisation.

He stressed that none of the reviews set up in the wake of recent climate controversies found flaws with the fundamental science of climate change.