Former IPCC Chief: "Warming Bias Must be Investigated"

Robert Watson, former chief of the United Nations IPCC, says that the current organization needs to investigate the warming bias present in the mistakes being uncovered in their assessment report. Watson said that if the numerous mistakes found in the IPCC report were truly innocent errors, as current chairman Rajendra Pachauri claims, some would probably have understated the impact of climate change. Instead, every error has lead to an exaggeration of the impacts or severity of climate change.

"The mistakes all appear to have gone in the direction of making it seem like climate change is more serious by overstating the impact," said Watson in an interview with The London Times. "That is worrying. The IPCC needs to look at this trend in the errors and ask why it happened." Watson suggested using graduate students to thoroughly check sources and research figures used in the IPCC report. The current errors were exposed by simply checking sources, and does not take into account any inaccuracies in the research itself.

Watson also believes that the IPCC has worked too hard to expel skeptic viewpoints from the climate assessment report, which he says is in error. Watson contends that skeptic viewpoints should at least be acknowledged in the IPCC report. "The IPCC’s job is to weigh up the evidence. If [skeptical research] can’t be dismissed, it should be included in the report. Point out it’s in the minority and, if you can’t say why it’s wrong, just say it’s a different view."

Watson has been moving forward with an open-source climate science project similar to what has been proposed by the NOAA Climate Service. Unlike the NOAA program, Watson believes that his project should compliment — not compete with — the IPCC in terms of authority.