Juicy interview with Pachauri

'They can bend me, but they can't break me'- Hindustan Times

He's a part-time poet and full-time climate-change spokesman who sometimes travels 20 days a month and on some nights sleeps as little as two hours (his average is six). But the tireless Rajendra Pachauri (69) - he even wrote a novel Return to Almora, with lots of racy passages while flying around the world - is now showing some strain from a barrage of allegations.
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Dr Pachauri, could the IPCC not have done better in admitting to its mistakes and correcting them quickly?

There is only one error (Himalayan glaciers melting by 2035), to which we have admitted. After that the errors reported are spurious. They (some western media) said the IPCC claim on the losses from disasters was not from an authentic source. We checked the source; it was authentic. The IPCC was also correct on its claim on Amazon forests…the IPCC isn't here to answer deniers of climate change. Their sole objective is to damage the credibility of IPCC, not answering people whose only motive is to deny the science of climate change. We will put up a statement on IPCC website (clarifying errors), this is it. We are not going to answer these spurious individual complaints coming in only two sources, The Times (London), and, more importantly, The Telegraph.
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If your climate science is strong, and there are no ambiguities in the report, why are we seeing this growing skepticism? Why now?

Unfortunately, as you know, there has been a change in the United States. President (Barack) Obama right from the beginning has been committed on taking action on climate change. A legislation has been introduced in the Congress. To counter it, there are 2,300 lobbyists in Washngton DC, whose only job is to see no policy, no legislation comes into existence that will tackle the problem of climate change.
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Why do you think you are personally under attack?

Well, because I have been very vocal. And, maybe, I was my fault. Right from the beginning, when I was vice-chair of IPCC in 1997, I was telling my colleagues that we really have to have go out and spread the message, if the IPCC has to be policy relevant. [Note: the formal mandate of the IPCC is to be "policy neutral"] I have been very active, saying that the developed world has to support those who are impacted by climate change. I have gone to the point of saying that people should eat less meat. That bothers them because they feel I am questioning their lifestyles, of course, (and) they feel it is bringing huge cost to them. They feel this guy from India - whom they referred to as a Hindu vegetarian, a term I think is slanderours - is telling us how to live. They feel threatened by the scientific assessments of the IPCC and hold me responsible for what I am been saying on the basis of the science that has emerged.
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I am not a monk I don't live in a monastery. I don't think I will ever do that. I have an inherited house, it is an ancestral property in Golf Links. If you think I should not be living in Golf Links, please get me a nice house and maybe I would consider moving from there. I find it very convenient [the house is half km from TERI].
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I don't eat meat, I stopped eating meat years ago, I never go to a shopping mall, I don't think I have ever been to a shopping mall in this country because I am ethically against these energy guzzling establishments. When I step out of my office, I always switch off my lights. At home I never use a heater during the worst period in the winter, I just don't like it. I try to do my best in my own lifestyle, I know it is not good enough, but this is something that is a part of my daily existence. For anyone to say I have a luxurious lifestyle, I think it is a lie of the worst kind.
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Can you provide us revenue for 10 years to prove there is no link between IPCC and TERI?

I don't see a link. As, I said if I would had been administrator of UNDP or in World Bank or in corporate sector, where I could dole out favours to people, then you can say that people are favouring TERI. I am proud of the credibility I have. If people feel I can run the organization, and this organisation does deliver, not through my efforts but everybody's efforts, we are proud about it. I have proved myself in several aspects in the world. Not in eyes of Sunday Telegraph. Fortunately, there are a few people, thank God, like the Sunday Telegraph. But yes, if you want, we can provide the accounts, the payments made over these 10 years.
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Did failure at Copenhagen help climate skeptics?

No agreement at Copenhagen in fact encouraged some of the deniers, and those who are financing them with, maybe millions, who knows, billions of dollars.