Certain countries and companies feel threatened by growing efforts against climate change, the UN climate chief said on Thursday, after other officials spoke of a campaign to undermine a consensus on global warming. Yvo de Boer spoke amid a controversy over an incorrect projection on glacial melting by the United Nations climate panel, which drew into focus the panel's credibility and led to personal attacks on its chief, Rajendra Pachauri. Pachauri has said he will not resign over a forecast that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035. “I wish I knew if there is a concerted attack on the scientific community and where it's coming from,” de Boer told reporters. “I don't know if there is a campaign. I know that there are companies and countries that are very seriously concerned that ambitious action to address climate change will harm them economically,” he added. Pachauri told the Financial Times newspaper on Wednesday that attacks on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and on him were “carefully orchestrated” by climate skeptics and corporate interests. De Boer said the erroneous projection made in a 2007 report could be used as ammunition by climate skeptics. But he defended Pachauri's record and said the mistake did not undermine the broad international consensus on climate change. The Indian government and some climate researchers have criticized IPCC for overstating the shrinking of the Himalayan glaciers.
