Rajendra Pachauri verballed by the Australian

Matthew Warren claims in the Australian:

The head of the world's leading climate change organisation has backed the Howard Government's decision to defer setting a long-term target for reducing greenhouse emissions until the full facts are known.

Despite widespread criticism of the Government's decision last month to defer its decision on cutting emissions until next year, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said yesterday he agreed with the approach. ...

The Coalition and Labor have committed to the introduction of emissions trading from about 2011, based on a long-term reduction target.

However, the scale and timing of the cuts have emerged as key differences between the major parties, with Labor committed to a 60 per cent cut in greenhouse emissions by 2050. while the Coalition will wait until next year for detailed analysis to be completed.

Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull last night welcomed Dr Pachauri's endorsement of the Government's approach.

Pachauri gave a talk at UNSW last night, and since Warren's claim about his position was inconsistent with his talk, he was asked about Warren's story. Pachauri explained that he had been misquoted. The Sydney Morning Herald interviewed Pachauri and reported:

The industrial engineer from India, who was elected to the sensitive job of IPCC chairman in 2002, diplomatically avoided debate on whether Australia and the US should adopt binding targets to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

Matthew Warren (whose previous job was PR for the coal industry) has a history of misrepresenting the IPCC position. See here and here.

Update: Video of Pachauri's talk is here.