The Bush administration, on the advice of the fossil fuel industry, surprised the international scientific community by refusing to renominate incumbent Robert Watson to chair the Geneva-based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), effectively killing his chances of retaining his position. Instead, at a 19 April meeting, the US delegate to the IPCC voted for Rajendra Pachauri, an Indian energy economist. Watson, who had chaired the IPCC for five years, lost his position by a vote of 76 to 49.
The US shift away from Watson came as a surprise to both candidates. “I only learnt of US support through the media,” says Pachauri. “I was not informed by them officially,” he adds. Watson, chief scientist at the World Bank and a former member of the Clinton administration, also found out about the switch through interview queries from the media. John Houghton, who recently stepped down as cochair of one...
