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The United Nations’ advisory panel of climate scientists is to be expanded, and its procedures restructured, according to Bob Watson, the incoming chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In future, the panel will include more scientists from developing countries and economies in transition, and business and development groups, Watson told the UN climate meeting in Bonn last week (see above). Reviews of scientific literature will also include material in languages other than English.

IPCC's Third Assessment Report on the world's climate, and a summary ‘Synthesis’ report for policymakers, will be ready by 2001, he said. The main report will focus heavily on regional aspects of climate change, while the synthesis report will consider key policy-relevant topics. Proposed answers to these will be circulated to governments for comment before being approved by the IPCC.

The changes have been partly designed to reduce conflict between scientists representing governments and those belonging to independent research establishments. The previous second assessment report, particularly the summary document, was often surrounded by controversy (see Nature 378, 524; 1995).

Policymakers wanted answers to specific policy-related questions in language they could understand.

But the scientists drafting the reports were reluctant to stray beyond the confines of science, whose findings were often uncertain or subject to debate, a position which confused policymakers.