Enviro-Nutters Busted! Rajendra Pachauri: head of UN climate change panel clocks up half a million miles of air travel
| 08 February 2010
The embattled head of the United Nations’ climate change panel clocked up more than half a million miles of air travel in a year and a half as he travelled the world warning of the global warming threat, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
On his international missions, Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), called for radical action to stave off environmental disaster.
He urged people to eat less meat, pay aviation taxes and even ban giving iced water in restaurants. But in order to get his message across, the former railway engineer, who lives in Delhi, created an enormous carbon footprint of his own.
Dr Pachauri has been the chairman of the panel since 2002. Documents available on its website showed that in one 19-month period, he clocked up more than half a million miles in the air as he travelled the world on official business.
Between January 2007 and July 2008, he took more than 120 long-haul flights and 43 short-haul trips, taking in countries such as New Zealand, America and Fiji.
Dr Pachauri’s trips would have produced 121.1 tons of carbon dioxide, according to calculations by ClimateCare, a carbon offset provider.
It is estimated that the average Briton produces around 8.6 tons of carbon dioxide a year, while the average Indian produces just over one ton.
The international climate change debate has been dominated in recent months by disclosures of leaked emails suggesting unfavourable data was being suppressed.
It also emerged that predictions that the Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035 were out by 300 years. Dr Pachauri refused to apologise over the blunder, claiming he could not be responsible for every word of a 3,000-page report.
Most of Dr Pachauri’s trips involved high level meetings with world leaders, environmental experts and influential business executives.
But in May 2008, he flew more than 6,500 miles from Tokyo to New Haven in Connecticut to collect an honorary degree from Yale University.
Speaking last September ahead of the climate change conference in Copenhagen, Dr Pachauri admitted his carbon footprint was significant.
He told a UN publication: “I really have one area where unfortunately I am guilty of a pretty large carbon footprint, and that is in terms of travel.
That is something that unfortunately I can’t do anything about because I have to spread the message.
“I have to go all over the world and I have to convince people that this is a serious problem that we have to address. But in terms of my personal lifestyle, I’m very careful about not being consumptive in my habits.
“I’m careful about use of transport in my daily life.”
A source within the IPCC said: “This period was exceptional in terms of air travel and since then Dr Pachauri has significantly cut back, using video conferencing technology where possible for overseas events.”
Dr Pachauri has faced growing criticism regarding his links to worldwide business interests. He is director-general of Delhi based The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri).
He has denied any wrongdoing or conflict of interest. Speaking on Today on Radio 4 yesterday, he said any money he makes from his consultancy goes back into the Teri research organisation.
Detectives from Norfolk Police have interviewed Paul Dennis, a scientist from the University of East Anglia, as a possible witness about how controversial emails were leaked from the campus climate research unit.
Mr Dennis has denied leaking material.
Comments
It all seems to be crumbling around the IPCC and Pauchauri. I guess he will blame man made global warming for this as well!
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