The United Nation's geographically chosen panel of climate experts, the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC), is moving fast to correct errors in its first of four sections of its new report, heading off the public relations disaster of the last report, where it was only revealed by critics that the document contained 'grey literature', including an off-hand claim in a magazine, and was in part written by environmental activists.

IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri survived that and promised to make the next release more scientific and they are moving quickly to correct estimates of historical greenhouse gas emissions made in September.  Examples: the estimated cumulative amount of carbon emitted since 1860-1881 will go to 515 billion tons from 531 billion while the estimated amount emitted since 1750 goes from 545 to 555 billion tons.

Pachauri says the errors do not affect conclusions that time was running out to limit global warming.

U.N. climate panel corrects carbon numbers in influential report by Alister Doyle, Reuters