Rajendra Pachauri speaks out over sexual harassment claims

Nobel peace prize winner and former IPCC boss says climate change sceptics are behind allegations he harassed female colleague

It was the crowning glory of a distinguished career when, in December 2007, the head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the charismatic Rajendra Pachauri, collected the Nobel peace prize in Oslo.

Elected by governments five years before to chair the small independent organisation charged with informing them on the state of global climate science, Pachauri had seen off the Bush administration, which loathed the IPCC for not taking its line on climate change. He had weathered vicious attacks by sceptics and steered the IPCC to worldwide acclaim.