THE Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is in need of fundamental reform. Its organisation is outdated, and it has failed to follow many of its own procedures, a high-level of the panel鈥檚 activities reported this week (see 鈥淐limate panel must 鈥榝undamentally reform鈥� to survive鈥�).
A central recommendation is that to encourage new thinking, senior management should only be allowed to serve for a single term. That amounts to a call for the panel鈥檚 chair, Rajendra Pachauri, to step down.
He should go soon. Pachauri has spent too much effort defending the indefensible, in particular when it emerged that the IPCC鈥檚 last report contained serious mistakes.
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Those who strive to cast doubt on the reality of climate change will doubtless be delighted by his departure. But keeping Pachauri in place would undermine efforts to rebuild the panel鈥檚 authority, even if other recommended reforms are implemented.
When the IPCC鈥檚 governing body meets in South Korea next month, it should seek a new chair 鈥� preferably a scientist of stature from outside the climate research establishment. That will give it the best chance of re-establishing the credibility it must have.