After locking horns with the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the glacier melting issue,
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday that the research
of the Indian panel on climate change would be more ‘robust and solid’
than the UN body’s.
“We should not depend only on reports from the
UN body. Its fault was that it didn't do original research and derives
assessments from published literature," Ramesh told reporters while
referring to the recent goof-up by the IPCC. He said there was a fine
line between climate science and climate evangelism and
“I don't believe
in the latter”. “I think people misused the IPCC report," he said
maintaining that the IPCC, with a panel of over 2000 scientists, was a
responsible body. “I respect the IPCC. At the same time India is a
large country... we can't depend only IPCC. So, we have launched the
Indian Network on Comprehensive Climate Change Assessment (INCAA).
It's got 125 research institutions from across the country who will do
their own assessment," Ramesh said.
He said that INCAA, launched last October, was
not a parallel or rival to IPCC but its researches will be definitely
would be more robust and solid than the UN body. The first climate
change assessment from INCAA would be brought out in November this
year, he said.
The "four by four assessment" would look at four
sectors - agriculture, health, water and forests -- and four regions.
These would be Himalayan ecosystems, coastal areas, western ghats and
the northeast.
On the IPCC claim that the Himalayan glaciers
would melt by 2035, Ramesh termed it as "alarmist."
“I have always maintained that the health of
glaciers were a cause of serious concern and there was a need for
carrying out more researches and studies to take corrective measures”,
he said.
He added that the National Institute of
Himalayan glaciology at Dehradun has been set up for this purpose. The
Minister also announced the launch of the National Environmental
Sciences Fellows Programmes to encourage young scientists to do
“cutting-edge research on critical issues related to the environment
in collaboration with leading institutes and scientists
