Sexual harassment case: Pachauri still holds position in global bodies

Despite allegations of sexual harassment, RK Pachauri, director general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is still part of some prominent international bodies, even though he has resigned as the chairperson of the Nobel-prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and as member of Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change.

Updated on: Mar 5, 2015, 23:47:50 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Despite allegations of sexual harassment, RK Pachauri, director general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is still part of some prominent international bodies, even though he has resigned as the chairperson of the Nobel-prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and as member of Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change.

RK-Pachauri-resigned-as-the-chairperson-of-Intergovernmental-Panel-on-Climate-Change-IPCC-following-accusation-of-sexual-harassment-HT-file-photo

Pachauri is special adviser to the Energy for All Partnership of the Asian Development Bank, member of the advisory board of Clinton Climate Initiative and member of UNESCO high-level panel on peace and dialogue among cultures and its international science, technology and innovation centre for south-south cooperation.

HT had sent emails to all these organisations, seeking their comments on Pachauri holding important positions in wake of the case of sexual harassment of a research assistant registered against him by Delhi Police. None of them responded to the emails sent last Friday. A UNESCO representative in Delhi said the response should be sought from the Paris office as the view will be taken by senior executives there. There was no response to an email to the Paris office.

The ADB India office also did not respond, saying the call will have to be taken by its headquarters.

The TERI chief, who has gone on leave after the allegations, was not involved in day to day functions of these organisations. Pachauri is associated with 17 international organisations mostly as an adviser.

This comes in the wake of the UN announcing that it will not conduct any inquiry against Pachauri. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, in response to a question on UN starting a separate inquiry against Pachauri, said “We have seen the press reports of the case and I understand the case is being investigated by national authorities and that is where it stands.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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