Pachauri accused of making a 'fortune'

United Nations' top climate change czar Dr Rajendra Pachauri has been accused of making a 'fortune' from his links with 'carbon trading' companies dependent on the world body's policy recommendations.

In a special report, The Sunday Telegraph said "Although Dr Pachauri is often presented as a (climate) scientist, as a former railway engineer with a PhD in economics, he has no qualifications in climate science. What has also almost entirely escaped attention, however, is how Pachauri has established a worldwide portfolio of business interests with bodies that have been investing billions of dollars in organisations dependent on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's policy recommendations."

"These include banks, oil and energy companies and investment funds heavily involved in 'carbon trading' and 'sustainable technologies' which together make up the fastest-growing commodity market in the world estimated soon to be worth trillions of dollars a year."

Meanwhile, the Times of India reported on Monday that Pachauri had reacted strongly to the allegations, calling them "a pack of lies".

He said that he had "not pocketed a single penny" from his association with companies and institutes.

The Telegraph report said, "Today, in addition to his role as chairman of the IPCC, Dr Pachauri occupies more than a score of such posts, acting as director or adviser to many of the bodies that play a leading role in what has become known as the climate industry."

The newspaper, however, did not carry any reaction from Pachauri in its report.

The report claimed that the potential conflict of interest was first publicly raised on last Tuesday when, after giving a lecture at Copenhagen University, he was handed over a letter by two eminent climate sceptics.

One was Stephen Fielding, the Australian senator who started the revolt which recently led to the defeat of his government's "cap and trade scheme" that would place a limit on emissions.

The other, from Britain, was Lord Monckton, a longtime critic of the IPCC's science, who has recently played a key part in stiffening opposition to a cap and trade bill in the United States Senate.

Their open letter first challenged the scientific honesty of a graph prominently used in the IPCC's 2007 report, and shown again by Dr Pachauri in his lecture, demanding that he should withdraw it.

But they went on to question why the report had not declared Pachauri's personal interest in so many organisations that seemingly stood to profit from its findings.

The letter was circulated to all the 192 national conference delegations, calling on them to dismiss Pachauri as IPCC chairman because of recent revelations of his conflicting interests, the paper said.

Head of The Energy and Resources Institute, Pachuri shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of IPCC with former US Vice President Al Gore.

Image: Rajendra Pachauri at a news conference in Bern. | Photograph: Ruben Sprich/Reuters