IPCC rejects Daily Mail claims it plans climate ‘crisis meeting’

UN climate science body says paper made up ‘crisis’ claims, saying plans for forthcoming AR5 report remain as normal

NASA image shows how record sea ice low in 2012 compares to minimum average over last 30 years

By Sophie Yeo

The UN’s climate science body has rejected claims in the Mail on Sunday newspaper that it plans to hold a crisis meeting to discuss the impending release of its latest major report.

In an article labelled ‘Global cooling‘ journalist David Rose said that the growth in Arctic ice was proof of a worldwide global warming scam, and that the predictions of the current climate models were “gravely flawed”.

Rose said that leaked reports showed that governments were demanding 1,500 changes to the Summary for Policy makers, as it failed to adequately explain the recent “pause” in global warming.

As a result, he said, the IPCC was calling a crisis meeting to deal with the “revelations”.

“The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was due in October to start publishing its Fifth Assessment Report – a huge three-volume study issued every six or seven years. It will now hold a pre-summit in Stockholm later this month,” he wrote.

The claims have been repeated on blogs and social media,  as well as in an article in the Daily Telegraph, reflecting the high level of interest in the upcoming report of the UN climate change body, which is due to be published at the end of this month.

Numerous websites have debunked Rose’s questionable grasp of the science, including the Guardian and Skeptical Science, and today the IPCC itself  denied it is holding any kind of emergency gathering.

“Contrary to the articles the IPCC is not holding any crisis meeting,” it said in a statement.

“The IPCC will convene a plenary session to finalize the Working Group I contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, in line with its normal procedures, in Stockholm on 23-26 September 2013.

“The session has been scheduled for several years and this timetable has been repeatedly publicized by the IPCC.”

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