We need power to prescribe climate policy, IPCC scientists say

Greenhouse gas emissions are on track to rise by 9% by 2030, despite years of warnings from scientists. Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP

Senior climate experts are calling for an overhaul of the structure and powers of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in despair at the slow pace of climate action.

Five lead authors of IPCC reports told the Guardian that scientists should be given the right to make policy prescriptions and, potentially, to oversee their implementation by the 195 states signed up to the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC).