The Hague, February 06: The Netherlands has asked the UN climate change panel to explain an inaccurate claim in a landmark 2007 report that more than half the country was below sea level, the Dutch government said.
According to Dutch authorities, only 26% of the country is below sea level, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will be asked to account for its figures, environment ministry spokesman Trimo Vallaart said.
The incident may cause further embarrassment for the IPCC, which recently admitted that a claim in the same report that global warming could melt Himalayan glaciers by 2035 was wrong.
IPCC experts calculated that 55% of the Netherlands was below sea level by adding the area below sea level — 26% — to the area threatened by river flooding — 29% — Vallaart said. “They should have been clearer”, Vallaart said, adding that the Dutch office for environmental planning, an IPCC partner, had exact figures.
-Agencies