Despite the world having been taken in by the Nobel winning, UN-sponsored, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the last word on global warming and climate change as well as its effects on different aspects of the planet and life therein has not been heard.

The IPCC report, which raised an alarm across the world and sent governments scurrying for cover, is under serious challenge for several omissions and commissions and for what some scientists call pre-conceived notions.

Many scientists have conducted a virtual post-mortem of the report and have picked holes in the authors' logic and conclusions.

The Non-governmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) has come up with a report titled ‘Climate Change Reconsidered'.

Produced by 37 scientists from 14 countries and containing more than 4,000 references to peer reviewed science, the report not only highlights the weaknesses of the computer models for climate change used by the IPCC, it also explains how the models suffer from numerous deficiencies and shortcomings that could alter the very sign (plus or minus/warming or cooling) of the earth's projected temperature response to rising atmospheric carbon-dioxide (CO2) concentrations.

The consensus of the scientific papers in NIPCC report shows there is no relation between global warming and damage to biodiversity, human health or occurrences of natural disasters.

Further, this report finds that anthropogenic carbon emission probably has only a minuscule influence on global warming – thus the industries of developing nations such as India should not be disproportionately burdened to cut carbon emissions.

The scientists who wrote this study are working on a second edition to be published in 2013, according to Mr Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, an independent think-tank.

The Liberty Institute has reprinted the NIPCC report for wider dissemination in India. It is extremely important that policymakers in India take cognisance of different views – often conflicting – relating to global warming and climate change.

The country's current socio-economic status demands that lifting the hundreds of millions out of poverty should be the priority. Also, given the state of manufacturing technology and associated costs, there is simply no escape from burning fossil fuels.

In India, there is a huge mismatch between people and natural resources. The latter are inexorably going to be under strain.

However, any attempt to curtail polluting emissions is sure to generate the risk of curtailing growth itself. We need to do a tightrope walk.

Even while ensuring sustained economic growth underpinned by equity, it is necessary to invest in what are popularly called clean technologies which offer eco-friendly options in every walk of life.

It is a tough call; but we as a nation may not have much choice.

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