For Rajendra K Pachauri, last week brought a ray of sunshine through the thick smog of controversy clouding both his office and him personally. Last week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), of which Pachauri is chairman, received a clean chit from the InterAcademy Council. It also held Pachauri personally not guilty of misconduct.
That was good news for the 70-year-old Pachauri, who is also Director-General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a part-time romantic novelist and an avid cricketer. He has been in the eye of a global storm ever since IPCC was accusing of overstating concerns about Himalayan glaciers melting by 2035. “The scientific community agrees that climate change is real,” he said after the council’s report on 30 August.
That came barely days after Britain’s Sunday Telegraph apologised to Pachauri after an audit of his finances by accounting firm KPMG found that he had made little income from outside dealings since 2008. Looks like the skies may be finally clearing for the beleaguered Pachauri.
