Pachauri does not practise what he preaches

Climate change expert Dr Rajendra Pachauri wants people to use public transport to reduce their carbon footprints and cut greenhouse gas emissions but the chief of UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it seems, has no apparent inclination to cut global warming in his own backyard in Delhi.

Pachauri, who is facing heat over the shoddy report on the Himalayan glaciers melting by 2035, has been slammed by a British newspaper for using a car to travel just one mile (1.6 km) to work. “On Friday, for the one-mile journey from home to his Delhi office, Pachauri could have walked, or cycled, or used the eco-friendly electric car provided for him but instead, he had his personal chauffeur collect him from his home in a Toyota Corolla,” the Mail said in its Sunday edition.

Hours later, the chauffeur picked up Pachauri from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) office blatantly ignoring the institute’s own climate advice that gives visitors tips on how to reduce pollution by using buses. Pachauri —who as IPCC chairman once told people to eat less meat to cut gas emissions – was then driven to a non-vegetarian restaurant just half a mile from his home in the posh Golf Link area in Delhi.

The five-star lifestyle and considerable wealth of Pachauri—who is said to wear suits costing Rs73,723 each—has come under growing scrutiny since he was forced to acknowledge the error of the claims in an explosive 2007 IPCC report that the Himalayan glaciers might melt within 25 years. Pachauri has declined to comment. His company’s manager Rajiv Chhibber says Pachauri is “really stressed at the moment. The past two weeks have been very rough on him.”

What’s bothering Pachauri could be the questions being asked about his portfolio of business interests in bodies that have been investing billions of dollars in organisations dependent on the IPCC’s policy recommendations—including banks, oil and energy companies and investment funds involved in carbon trading.His institute is said to have received £310,000 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the lion’s share of a £2.5million EU grant after citing what have now been found to be the bogus Glaciergate claims in grant applications.