The IPCC publishes the citizenship and gender of its authors – but says nothing about their scientific expertise.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claims to be a scientific organization. But it’s really a political one.

An obvious tell is how it describes its personnel. In the old days, IPCC reports listed people according to their role and their country. Matters have improved since then.

Today, the IPCC gives us six data points about its personnel rather than three. A webpage associated with its latest report tells us each individual’s:

name IPCC role (coordinating lead author, lead author, review editor) gender country of residence citizenship institutional affiliation

But this only looks like progress. In the real world, the additional info is irrelevant. Science doesn’t care where someone lives or what citizenship they hold. Science doesn’t care if they’re a man or a woman.

If the IPCC is a panel of experts, the critical issue is: What is each of these people an expert in? More than 30 years after its founding, the IPCC still thinks it doesn’t need to talk about this.

For the UN bureaucrats who run the show, some things are important. Some are not. The nature of an author’s scientific expertise clearly isn’t a burning issue. But lots of attention is being paid to checking diversity boxes.

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