http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3ebfd87e-b9e2-11e4-933f-00144feab7de.html#ixzz3SXCiWtfv
The chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, has pulled out of a four-day meeting of the body in Nairobi next week after being accused of sexually harassing a 29-year-old employee at the New Delhi research institute he heads.
The IPCC, the world’s leading authority on climate change, said in a statement on Saturday Mr Pachauri had informed the panel he had to cancel “because of issues demanding his attention in India”.
Mr Pachauri, an economist and industrial engineer by training, is director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute, Teri, an influential think-tank in New Delhi, and said he was fighting the allegations made against him.
“Dr Pachauri is committed to provide all assistance and co-operation to the authorities in their ongoing investigations,” a spokesman for the chairman told the FT on Saturday.
A 29-year-old researcher, who has worked at Teri since September 2013, filed a police complaint in Delhi last week, alleging Mr Pachauri had harassed her with inappropriate emails, text messages, and unwanted advances.
The Delhi Police have opened a preliminary file regarding the matter according to Indian media.
In a Delhi High Court petition seeking for an emergency injunction to stop any media reporting on the case, Mr Pachauri claimed he first learned of the accusations against him when he was contacted by an Indian newspaper, asking for his response to the sexual harassment complaint.
His lawyers said Mr Pachauri immediately realised that “his email accounts have been hacked and used to send the employee who has made the complaint objectionable communication,” according to the February 17 Delhi High Court order.
In his petition, Mr Pachauri says he was “never the author of such objectionable matter,” and has now filed his own police complaint that his computers were hacked.
His lawyers also described the emails sent to the Teri employee as a “conspiracy” by “vested interests” intended to “destroy the reputation standing goodwill and repute” of Mr Pachauri.
While the court did initially issue an injunction barring any media reporting on the sexual harassment complaint, the gag order has since been lifted, with the court permitting reporting on the ongoing proceedings.
Mr Pachauri has obtained a Delhi High Court stay on any arrest until February 23, which will allow him time to apply for so-called “anticipatory bail”.
He has served two terms as chairman of the IPCC since 2002 and is due to step down after the panel elects a new chair in October this year.
The IPCC’s meeting in Nairobi is one of the gatherings it holds regularly to discuss its operations and will now be run by a vice-chair.
The IPCC was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, along with former US vice-president, Al Gore, for its role in improving knowledge about climate change and the measures needed to counter it.
The panel’s latest weighty report, finalised in November last year, is playing an important role in UN negotiations on a new global climate agreement due to be signed in Paris in December.
Its findings on the amount of warming greenhouse gas emissions that can be safely released before the world risks tipping into potentially dangerous levels of climate change has been cited by some countries eager for the deal to include a deadline for phasing out emissions.
Other nations are wary of including firm dates for ending emissions and would prefer any agreement to include a more vague target, such as the goal countries have already set to limit future warming to 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times.
Mr Pachauri’s tenure as chair of the IPCC has been marked by periods of controversy.
He faced calls to resign over a mistaken suggestion in an earlier IPCC assessment in 2007 that the Himalayan glaciers could disappear as early as 2035, a date it admitted had been “poorly substantiated”.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3ebfd87e-b9e2-11e4-933f-00144feab7de.html#axzz3SXCVgy00
The chairman of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, has pulled out of a four-day meeting of the body in Nairobi next week after being accused of sexually harassing a 29-year-old employee at the New Delhi research institute he heads.
The IPCC, the world’s leading authority on climate change, said in a statement on Saturday Mr Pachauri had informed the panel he had to cancel “because of issues demanding his attention in India”.
Mr Pachauri, an economist and industrial engineer by training, is director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute, Teri, an influential think-tank in New Delhi, and said he was fighting the allegations made against him.
“Dr Pachauri is committed to provide all assistance and co-operation to the authorities in their ongoing investigations,” a spokesman for the chairman told the FT on Saturday.
A 29-year-old researcher, who has worked at Teri since September 2013, filed a police complaint in Delhi last week, alleging Mr Pachauri had harassed her with inappropriate emails, text messages, and unwanted advances.
The Delhi Police have opened a preliminary file regarding the matter according to Indian media.
In a Delhi High Court petition seeking for an emergency injunction to stop any media reporting on the case, Mr Pachauri claimed he first learned of the accusations against him when he was contacted by an Indian newspaper, asking for his response to the sexual harassment complaint.
His lawyers said Mr Pachauri immediately realised that “his email accounts have been hacked and used to send the employee who has made the complaint objectionable communication,” according to the February 17 Delhi High Court order.
In his petition, Mr Pachauri says he was “never the author of such objectionable matter,” and has now filed his own police complaint that his computers were hacked.
His lawyers also described the emails sent to the Teri employee as a “conspiracy” by “vested interests” intended to “destroy the reputation standing goodwill and repute” of Mr Pachauri.
While the court did initially issue an injunction barring any media reporting on the sexual harassment complaint, the gag order has since been lifted, with the court permitting reporting on the ongoing proceedings.
Mr Pachauri has obtained a Delhi High Court stay on any arrest until February 23, which will allow him time to apply for so-called “anticipatory bail”.
He has served two terms as chairman of the IPCC since 2002 and is due to step down after the panel elects a new chair in October this year.
The IPCC’s meeting in Nairobi is one of the gatherings it holds regularly to discuss its operations and will now be run by a vice-chair.
The IPCC was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, along with former US vice-president, Al Gore, for its role in improving knowledge about climate change and the measures needed to counter it.
The panel’s latest weighty report, finalised in November last year, is playing an important role in UN negotiations on a new global climate agreement due to be signed in Paris in December.
Its findings on the amount of warming greenhouse gas emissions that can be safely released before the world risks tipping into potentially dangerous levels of climate change has been cited by some countries eager for the deal to include a deadline for phasing out emissions.
Other nations are wary of including firm dates for ending emissions and would prefer any agreement to include a more vague target, such as the goal countries have already set to limit future warming to 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times.
Mr Pachauri’s tenure as chair of the IPCC has been marked by periods of controversy.
He faced calls to resign over a mistaken suggestion in an earlier IPCC assessment in 2007 that the Himalayan glaciers could disappear as early as 2035, a date it admitted had been “poorly substantiated”.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3ebfd87e-b9e2-11e4-933f-00144feab7de.html#axzz3SXCVgy00
