Rajendra K Pachauri, chairman of the UN panel on Climate Change, took two months to correct the report about melting Himalayan glaciers despite being informed before last year's Copenhagen Summit, a media report claimed today, but the climate czar termed it as "ridiculous".
"Pachauri was told that the Inter-government Panel on Climate Change assessment that the glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong but he waited two months to correct it. He failed to act despite learning that the claim had been refuted by several leading glaciologists," The Times reported today.
The IPCC's report underpinned the proposals at Copenhagen for drastic cuts in global emissions, it said.
Asked whether he had deliberately kept silent about the error to avoid embarrassment at Copenhagen, Pachauri told the newspaper: "That's ridiculous. It never came to my attention before the Copenhagen summit. It wasn't in the public sphere."
The report said Pachauri, who played a leading role at the December Copenhagen summit, corrected the error last week after coming under media pressure.
Pachauri had last week admitted that the report about melting of Himalayan glaciers was a mistake, but ruled out his resignation on the issue.
The company posted a standalone net loss of Rs 37.71 crore for the third quarter. It had earned a net profit of Rs 397.04 crore for the same period last year.
Total standalone income slipped to Rs 3,109.66 crore for the October-December quarter 2009 from Rs 3,398.73 crore for the same period a year ago, it said.
The company posted consolidated net profit of Rs 3,706.90 crore for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2009 against Rs 4,630.62 crore in the same period previous year.
Consolidated net income from operations increased to Rs 16,622.77 crore in the nine-month period under review from Rs 16,436.85 crore during the same period last fiscal.
