Nobel gives climate change visibility: Pachauri
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 12
For Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman R.K. Pachauri, the IPCC winning the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize is a recognition of the important linkage between climate change and global peace.

“To me, this award is the recognition of the role of the IPCC and that the baby (IPCC) has grown up,” he said, adding that to him it was the pinnacle of satisfaction and to the scientific community an inspiration, an encouragment that the issue of climate change has come of age.

“The award has given the issue of climate change the visibility it deserves. Those working in the field will feel deeply encouraged and inspired,” he told The Tribune soon after hearing the news that UN climate change panel headed by him will share this year’s Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice-President Al Gore.

Pachauri said his message to India on the occasion would be to “look into the science and knowledge in the IPCC reports and take action in the best interest of the people. “The IPCC’s job is to alert and put forth the knowledge and suggestions. It is for policy makers to decide what they want to do. Business and industry will work in the way it suites them, the government has to ensure coinciding business and societal interest,” he added.

India, he said, did not have any targets to cut down emissions because of the phrase in the Framework Convention on Climate Change that defined “common but differentiated responsibility".

“There are a large number of people in developing countries who do not have any modern form of energy to take care of their needs. Therefore you cannot adopt the same yardsticks for developed and developing countries. But India cannot emulate developed countries and we have to find a path with technology and political will. I feel anguished that affluent India is totally divorced from the reality of poverty and climate change and is consuming more energy than necessary. It’s time we became conscious about our consuming patterns. Ravages of climate change can be minimised. But even if we stabalise the concentration of GHGs today, climate change will continue for some more years,” he said.

Pachauri said his message to all member countries would be to look at the science and knowledge contained in the IPCC reports as the two issues of global peace and climate change were closely inter-linked.

“Global peace and stability will be threatened by climate change. We are living in an unequal world. There are people in this world who are not even equipped to deal with normal vagaries of weather let alone serious changes in climate. Any movement of population would completely break down the social fabric and lead to disharmony,” he said.

The IPCC was founded in 1988 to investigate risks of global warming by the World Meteorological Organisation(WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP). It was tasked with gathering, assessing and presenting scientific data on climate change in a format that the world could understand.

Ahead of today’s announcements, the Pachauri-headed IPCC had been named as a possible winner of this year’s peace prize. Pachauri is the director-general of Delhi-based think-tank The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and the institute was gearing up for the award since morning. TERI is a non-profit, scientific and policy research organisation, working in India and globally in fields of energy and environment.

Pachauri said he was accepting congratulations on behalf of the entire scientific community. “In fact, all scientists who have contributed to the work of the IPCC are Nobel laureates”. The recognistion, he said, meant even more responsibility for the organisation.

Regarding what would be done with the prize money, he said it would be up to the panel to decide how to make best use of it. As far as celebrations were concerned, Pachauri said he would like to postpone them till November 16 when the IPCC brings out the synthesis report and the entire panel is present.