Unequal representation

-- AT THE Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change meeting in
Harare in November, efforts were
made to reorganise its bureauto
ensure sgientists from the developing world are better represented. But IPCC secretary N Sundararaman said finding scientists from developing countries
was difficult and some governments were reluctant to allow scientists to serve on what is essentially an intergovernmental panel.

Several representatives in the
new bureau are from OPEC countries. Sundararaman said much to
the dismay of several people,
Saudi Arabia pushed for their
representative to be nominated
vice-chairperson of the bureau
and ironically, the Asia representative selected was from Kuwait.
The panel's work has been redefined to establish a better basis
for future assessments of climate
change. Three working groups
have been set up - to deal with
the science of climate change, to
assess the impact of climate
change and responses and to look
at economic issues relating to climate change.