SWITZERLAND: The chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri underlines risks of climate change for global peace

The chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri was in Bern on Tuesday, where he discussed the threats of climate change for global peace with Swiss top officials. Rajendra Pachauri came to the IPCC's headquarters in Geneva, after they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Al Gore. At a press briefing he gave after his visit, he underlined the strong burden climate change puts on developing countries through the important increase of floods and droughts, contributing to widening economic and social gaps between OECD and developing countries. "Adaptation requires resources, both technical, human, and of course most importantly financial, and since the poor countries really don't have the means on any of these three aspects, we are imposing a further on them, which I suppose as is implied in the Nobel Peace Prize, can threaten peace and security across the globe", Pachauri said. The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize's award to U.S. former vice president Al Gore and the UN's climate change panel heated up the debate over climate change. Climate change denial lobbies claim there is much greater division in the scientific community about global warming than it seems, and think the dangers of the climate change induced by human activity are being strongly exaggerated by the IPCC and other scientists. "I mean, a large number of people who were doubtful in the past, and this includes people in the scientific community, this includes people along the political spectrum, they all now agree that climate change is for real. So I will say that yes, there will always be some sceptics who'll keep criticising the IPCC but to be quite honest, I don't know the substance of their criticism, I mean on what basis can they say that the IPCC is biased? This is a large body of scientists and experts from all over the world. Everything we do is based on pure reviewed literature. It's not something that we invent and therefore, I can't understand why people seem to point fingers at the IPCC. There is so much of scrutiny at every stage, that if there was anything that is unsubstantiated on the scientific basis, it would never go through", Pachauri said.

ITN Source | October 17, 2007

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