IPCC issues corrections on climate report

UN climate scientists have issued corrections to the summary of a key report on global warming issued in September.

"Errors... were discovered by the authors of the report after its approval and acceptance" by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC said on Monday.

"The version that was released on that date was subject to copy edit, and final layout."

The panel issued six corrections to the summary for policymakers (SPM) in the first tome of the much-awaited Fifth Assessment Report.

The fixes mainly make slight increases or reductions in figures for estimates of historic emissions of greenhouse gases.

Predictions of the likely temperature rise this century and other core forecasts are not affected.

The IPCC stressed it was following procedures for rectifying mistakes in "full transparency" before the report is formally published.

The panel suffered embarrassment after climate sceptics found several mistakes in its Fourth Assessment Report, published in 2007, which unleashed political action on rolling back carbon emissions.

The new report, issued in Stockholm on September 27, focuses on the physical science of climate change. It is the first of three volumes in the Fifth Assessment Report that will be issued over the next year.

In it, the IPCC said it was more certain than ever that humans were the cause of global warming and predicted temperatures would rise another 0.3 to 4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5 - 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century.

It projected sea levels would rise between 26 and 82 centimetres (10.4 and 32.8 inches) by 2100, and warned of a higher risk of heatwaves, floods and droughts.

The summary for policymakers, issued in Stockholm, was agreed at the end of a hectic week in which the IPCC had to discuss hundreds of proposed amendments to the text.