"There's been this error, but that in no way detracts from the value of the report or the impact it has had, Rational people see the larger picture and are not going to be distracted by this one error."

Given that the IPCC's 2007 report had won the panel a Nobel peace prize that year, shared with Al Gore, the error looks egregious, particularly to those who reject the idea that the billions of tonnes of carbon we pump into the atmosphere could possibly have an impact on our climate. Now, every word and line of IPCC's work is being scrutinised by sceptics in their search for further climate calumnies.

Deniers say there is no connection between rising carbon levels and global warming. If they persuade us to do nothing but are wrong, then the consequences will be terrible. Can they demonstrate - with the same confidence and transparency employed by scientists working for the IPCC - that the danger of doing nothing is negligible and that greenhouse gases pose no risk to the planet? Could their arguments withstand the same rigorous examination that took place during Glaciergate? The answer to these questions is a straightforward "no": At no time have deniers ever put together a case, that inaction poses no threat to civilisation. that could withstand proper scientific peer review.

Mr Pachauri said on Saturday that the IPCC panel will be more rigorous in its scrutiny of all data used for its next assessment report. "I was re-elected by acclamation, essentially - I imagine - because everyone was satisfied with my performance on the fourth assessment report," Dr Pachauri said. "I am now charged with producing the fifth assessment report, which I will do faithfully and to the best of my abilities."