Good news has come out of the United Nations Environment Programme?s Bali session: an independent committee of distinguished experts will be set up to assess how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) vets scientific data, synthesises conclusions and conveys these to concerned people. Given the recent storm generated by allegations of error and all the adverse publicity that they have attracted to both IPCC and its cause, this was actually a necessary move for IPCC to reestablish its credibility. This is a body mandated to go through literature published on climate science across the world, which is not only a mammoth and complex undertaking by any measure but also involves thousands of scientists from more than 100 countries. What has emerged out of Bali is not an apologia for the four assessment reports already on the table or the basic science underlying IPCC?s broad position on global warming. Instead, it represents a commitment to make procedures more rigorous and identify existing loopholes in the enforcement of procedures that are already on the IPCC books. The review committee will be demonstrably independent of both IPCC and its chairman.
Meanwhile, whatever the Copenhagen disappointments and the like may have been and whatsoever may have been the ways in which IPCC could have better handled allegations of error, it?s clear that the UN body has played an important role in reshaping institutional thinking on climate change over the last few years. On both business and government fronts, it has impelled public opinion to move towards limiting emissions. Consider the Budget for this year. It conveys a strong intent to move the country towards a greener energy mix. First, there was the proposal to create a special fund to finance research and development in renewables and promote environment-friendly technologies. Second, as the cess announced on coal indicated, the government is not only incentivising cleaner sources of energy like natural gas but also moving towards a more efficient coal regime. The FM?s commitment to secure legislative approval for auctioning captive coal blocks would gradually align domestic coal prices with international ones, as well as make cleaner energy sources more competitive. China has simultaneously announced that it?s working on a programme to ensure that 15% of its total consumption mix will come from clean energy by 2020. IPCC must be given some credit for why Chindia have become more proactive on climate change, turning around from their ?the developed countries must fix what they broke? focus to become constructively occupied with breeding domestic low-carbon policies. In continuing to advance in this direction, they could do with a stronger, more rigorous and credible IPCC.