U.N. climate scientist defends report

ANKARA, Turkey, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A United Nations scientist struck back at climate change critics Saturday, saying the great weight of science still supports the findings of a landmark report.

Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program, wrote in an opinions piece published Saturday in the Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman that critics who have seized on a mistake over the rate at which the Himalayan glaciers would melt are missing the big picture.

The 2007 report from a United Nations-backed panel of experts, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, concluded that global warming is man-made. But the panel said this week that it made a mistake by claiming that the Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035, admitting the prediction wasn't based on actual research.

"It is quite right to pinpoint errors, make corrections, and check and re-check sources for accuracy and credibility," Steiner wrote, noting the IPCC has acknowledged its mistake and the need for more stringent and transparent quality-control procedures.

"The overwhelming evidence now indicates that greenhouse-gas emissions need to peak within the next decade if we are to have any reasonable chance of keeping the global rise in temperature down to manageable levels," he said.