Afterthoughts On World Climate Change Conference 2003
Afterthoughts On the World Climate Change Conference 2003
Prepared by
Andreas Fischlin,
conference participant and
IPCC author
We enjoyed a great hospitality. Many thanks to our hosts and Russian
colleagues! However, concerning the scientific content of the conference, we
had also to struggle with considerable difficulties. Unfortunately, there
were not only leading scientists present, but also some colleagues who used
the conference to express personal, political opinions based on value
judgement instead of scientific facts and rigorously derived, scientific insights
and thorough understanding. Thereby, I believe, principles of proper
scientific conduct were violated too often and sometimes, I am afraid having
to say so, even systematically. This contrasts sharply with the principles upheld by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel of Climate
Change), which allow only to assess the current knowledge based on the best
available, peer reviewed scientific literature and which do not allow for
any non-scientific value judgements, let alone policy recommendations.
- WCCC 2003: Home page
- UNFCCC: endorsement
- Conference preparation:
Nature reported on a preparatory meeting of the conference about problems:
Schiermeier, Q., 2003. Researchers rattled as Kyoto Protocol hangs in the balance.
Nature, 473 (6942, Jun.19th): 792.
[
Text]
- IPCC: Principles & Procedures
A.N. Illarionov (advisor of President Putin) attended on Wednesday, 1st October,
the conference and gave a presentation. He asked ten questions, eight of scientific, two
more of a political nature (see document below).
- A.N. Illarionov (advisor of President Putin): Answers to the questions raised by A.N. Illarionov, adviser to
President V. Putin of the Russian Federation, during his talk
«Anthropogenic Factors in Global Warming: Some Questions» at
the World Climate Change Conference 2003 prepared from material of the
IPCC Third Assessment Report (TAR) by attending scientists and
presented to the conference by Bert Bolin, chair emeritus of IPCC
[
Text (English)]
[
Russian translation]
A.N. Illarionov (advisor of President Putin) attended the conference
once more on the morning of the last day of the conference, 3rd October,
to receive the answers to his questions. They were presented by Prof. Dr.
Bert Bolin, emeritus chair of IPCC, on behalf of a group of
scientists who had prepared these answers during the conference. A.N. Illarionov also received
these answers in written form (see document above). Shortly afterwards,
A.N. Illarionov gave a press conference (see below).
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Terrestrial Systems Ecology
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Institute of Integrative Biology (IBZ)
]
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Department of Environmental Sciences
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ETHZ
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