Nobel laureate lashes out at climate change skeptics

Copenhagen: Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, Nobel laureate and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has little patience to discuss climate change skeptics' allegations.

Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). [Li Xing/chinadaily.com.cn]

"It is a free world so let them believe they want to believe," he said. "Whenever the new knowledge comes, there will always be skeptics who will find that the knowledge will blow in their face."

He highlighted his hope for a legally-binding climate deal with substantial commitments to emission reductions from all the nations.

"I hope for a stronger agreement that will spell out a range of actions for the nations to take to tackle the problem of climate change," he told China Daily before making his keynote speech.

The IPCC's fourth report on climate change not only offered assessment on the extent and nature of the climate change based on past observation but also with a projection for future, he said in his keynote speech.