India’s Prime Minister has today announced that India will boost its contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) will provide research findings to the IPCC by November 2010, informing its next Assessment Report, due in 2014. The involvement of INCCA will represent the first time that Indian scientists have contributed to the IPCC at an institutional level.

The focus of INCCA’s work will be on measuring, modelling and monitoring to assess the impact of climate change on ecosystems, biodiversity, health and agriculture, amongst other key sectors.

Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh commented that this development would bring science “back into the mainstream” of the Department’s work and decision-making.

SciDev.Net, 8 February, India boosts climate data contribution to IPCC, T. V. Padma