UN climate panel admits new error

IPCC wrong again with claim that 55% of Netherlands is under sea level

PTI | February 15, 2010


An unrelated photo of a simulated funeral procession of the Earth being staged out by Greenpeace activists after the end of Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change in New Delhi.
An unrelated photo of a simulated funeral procession of the Earth being staged out by Greenpeace activists after the end of Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change in New Delhi.

The UN climate change panel has admitted to having imprecisely stated in a key report that 55 per cent of The Netherlands is under sea level, saying that is only the area at risk of flooding.

The Dutch government this month asked the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to explain the figure, used in a landmark 2007 report, saying its numbers were that only 26 percent of the country is below sea level.

It was a new embarrassment for the panel. The same 938-page Fourth Assessment Report also contained an erroneous claim that global warming could melt Himalayan glaciers by 2035.

The IPCC admitted in a note sent to AFP yesterday that the 55 per cent figure was actually the portion of The Netherlands "at risk of being flooded". It insisted that the imprecision did not affect the conclusions of the report.

 

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