The UN-requested review of the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is to be headed by Harold T. Shapiro, former president of Princeton.
Shapiro, along with 11 others, will analyse “IPCC policies and the procedures by which it prepares its assessments of climate change”, in the wake of the so-called ‘climate-gate’ incident where leaked emails from a British researcher were construed to cast doubt on the science of global warming by some.
“We approach this review with an open mind,” Shapiro said in a statement. “I’m confident we have the experts on this committee necessary to supply the UN with a stronger process for providing policymakers the best assessment of climate change possible.”
The panel was selected by the InterAcademy Council (IAC), a group of science academies from across the world. It includes vice-chair Roseanne Diab, executive officer of the Academy of Science of South Africa, and Mario Molina, Nobel laureate and researcher at the University of California, San Diego (full list below the fold).
The first meeting of the review group will begin on 14 May and the group hopes to deliver its peer-reviewed report UN by the end of August.
“The IAC review will help ensure that future IPCC products have as strong a scientific basis as possible, giving governments and the public confidence in the findings and projections,” says IAC co-chair Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Biographies of Review Committee, as supplied by the IAC (full biogs).
Harold T. SHAPIRO (Canada/US), economist and President Emeritus of Princeton University and the University of Michigan, is a professor in the Department of Economics and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Roseanne DIAB (South Africa) is the Executive Officer of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and Emeritus Professor and Honorary Senior Research Associate at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.
Carlos Henrique de BRITO CRUZ (Brazil) is the Scientific Director of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), in Brazil, and Professor at the “Gleb Wataghin” Physics Institute at the University of Campinas (Unicamp).
Maureen CROPPER (United States)is a Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland, a Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future, and a former Lead Economist at the World Bank.
Jingyun FANG (China) is Cheung Kong Professor and Chair, Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, in Beijing. He also serves as Academic Director of the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, where he also taught as a professor from 1997 to today.
Louise O. FRESCO (The Netherlands) is currently University Professor, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands where she concentrates on issues of sustainability and scientific policy.
Syukuro MANABE (Japan/US) is a meteorologist who pioneered the use of computers to simulate global climate change and natural climate variations.
Goverdhan MEHTA (India) is National Research Professor and Bhatnagar
Fellow, Department of Organic Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
José Mario MOLINA-Pasquel Henríquez (Mexico/US) was a co-recipient (along Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland) of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in elucidating the threat to the Earth’s ozone layer of chlorofluorocarbon gases.
Sir Peter WILLIAMS FRS (United Kingdom) is Honorary Treasurer and Vice President of the Royal Society, Chancellor of the University of Leicester, and Chairman of the National Physical Laboratory.
Ernst-Ludwig WINNACKER (Germany) is Secretary General of the Human Frontier Science Program (HSFP).
Abdul Hamid ZAKRI (Malaysia) is Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia and holder of the Tuanku Chancellor Chair at Universiti Sains Malaysia.