If the IPCC is a scientific panel, then why is IPCC Chair, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri economic advisor to India?

Question

If the IPCC is a scientific panel, then why is IPCC Chair, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri economic advisor to India?

Answer 1

Panels are often chaired by someone who does not have an axe to grind in the discussion.

Choosing even an eminent person within the field may leave the feeling that the chair will be biased.

Answer 2

I think there are economists who consider economics a science.

Answer 3

The IPCC is broken up into 4 working groups.  The group that deals with the physical science of global warming, is made up of climate scientists.  Other working groups, that deal with economic issues, water management issues, social upheaval, etc. will rightly come from other fields.

Answer 4

Gosh, at least three of your beloved "expert" skeptics are also economists.  Can I ignore them as well?

Here's Pachauri's bio:

http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/bi...

The guy has two Ph.D.'s  How many do you think you need to be chairman of an international scientific committee?

Answer 5

The IPCC has never been a scientific body.  The I stands for INTERGOVERNMENTAL and since governemental = political, the IPCC is by its own admission a political body.

Answer 6

1) Pachauri is both an economist and environmental scientist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajendra_K....

2) He's the IPCC chair (like an organizer), not an author.

Answer 7

The IPCC Panel has experts in many fields, because they discuss not just global warming, but possible defenses.  Economic impacts are very important in those discussions.

Working Group 1, which deals with the causes of global warming, is largely climatologists.  Working Group 3, which deals with solutions, has a number of economists.  More info here:

http://www.ipcc.ch/

"Its role is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the latest scientific, technical and socio-economic literature produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change, its observed and projected impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation."