Former UN climate official charged with stalking and harassment

Indian police have charged Rajendra Pachauri, the UN climate panel’s former chairman, with sexually harassing a woman he worked with at a New Delhi energy institute. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan, file)

NEW DELHI // The UN climate panel’s former chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, was charged on Tuesday with stalking and sexually harassing a woman who worked at the New Delhi environmental think tank he’s headed for more than three decades.

Police filed the case in a Delhi court after investigating a complaint by one of Mr Pachauri’s colleagues at The Energy Research Institute, Press Trust of India said.

Mr Pachauri has denied the allegations, but resigned last year from both the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and from TERI after the researcher’s allegations were published in Indian newspapers. The allegations caused a public uproar in a country where women face a stigma against discussing issues such as sexual harassment in the workplace.

His appointment last month to another top post at TERI renewed outrage, and a second woman, who had worked there for a year, came forward with additional allegations.

The court scheduled an initial hearing on April 23.

Separate from the police investigation, TERI’s internal complaints committee examined the evidence presented by the researcher, and questioned nearly 50 other employees, and concluded that the allegations of sexual harassment leveled by the researcher were valid.

Police have charged Mr Pachauri, 75, with sexual harassment, stalking and criminal intimidation of the 29-year old woman.

Mr Pachauri had headed the four-decade-old think-tank for the last 34 years, when it emerged as a global center for research in efficient utilisation of energy and sustainable use of natural resources. It has affiliate institutes in London and Washington.

Mr Pachauri chaired the climate panel – considered the world’s authority on climate science – since 2002, and had accepted the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on its behalf. The panel shared the award with former US Vice President Al Gore.

*Associated Press