The New York Inner City Press, which specialises in "Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations" has been on the Pachauri case today.
At a UN press conference on the Copenhagen Accord, the newspaper asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "about the scandal erupting around the undisclosed business interests of the chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri, from the Tata Group through Deutsche Bank to Credit Suisse ... ".
Mr. Ban, we are told, entirely dodged the question, paradoxically using it as an opportunity to praise business. Pachauri's conflicts of interest are extensive and emblematic of the UN's lack of transparency and safeguards, the paper notes. So, notwithstanding the non-responsive answer, the paper asks: "does Mr. Ban believe that Pachauri should make public financial disclosure of these interests?"
Watch this site, it says.
James DeLong of the American Enterprise Institute is also sniffing round the edges. Contrary to what most people probably assumed (at least, I assumed), he writes, Pachauri is not a disinterested civil servant drawing his pay from the UN; he has a double interest in promoting IPCC recommendations that drastic action must be taken on climate change:
Adds DeLong, he is a policy entrepreneur - TERI is an environmental advocacy group, based on the assumption that there are indeed apocalyptic environmental problems that must be addressed - and he is a business entrepreneur working for organizations with a huge stake in getting the dogs to eat the food.
The organizations that have Pachauri on their payrolls seem to have adopted a rather interesting view of the ethics of paying someone who is presented to the world as an international civil servant, in furtherance of their desire to cash in on the climate change hoopla and obtain government subsidies and endorsements. DeLong adds.
PACHAURI THREAD
In the Daily Express. "The man who made science accessible to generations of youngsters, on why he disagrees with the climate doom-mongers." Worth a read.
Have you noticed, incidentally, that we have not had the "scare of the day" in The Daily Telegraphtoday. Does that tell us anything?
CLIMATE CHANGE – NEW THREAD
After the thwarted ambitions of the UN to introduce world government via its climate change agenda, even the New York Times is questioning the suitability of the United Nations as a negotiating forum.
Its alternatives are not much better, but this can be taken as a straw in the wind. The UN – of "food for oil" fame – has taken a "hit" at Copenhagen, and lost some of its appeal. We will not be safe until the whole thing is disbanded - alongside the EU and the other tranzie nightmares - but it is a start.
CLIMATE CHANGE – NEW THREAD
A leader in The Australian today suggests how the the debate in beginning to be shaped by the revelations on the generous Dr Pachauri, who gives all his pocket money to his own institute – without then declaring how much he gets in return.
Says the leader:
Essentially, the conference's failure to update the Kyoto Protocol leaves developing nations to do as they like. But as the long list of business interests of Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and head of India's Energy and Resources Institute, suggests, the politics of carbon are replete with vested interests.That is indeed the question, but it was one raised exclusively on this blog a mere eight days ago and developed in subsequent posts. But it took the power of "Big Media" toproject the story and give it that all-important "reach" that a small blog cannot achieve – significantly helped of course by James Delingpole and his MSM blog and influential independents such as Bishop Hill.
How Dr Pachauri can remain impartial given his reported interests in fossil fuel, venture capital, alternative energy, research and motor vehicle companies is an interesting question that he is yet to answer satisfactorily.
A point that emerges from that experience is that the MSM and the blogs are not in competition – there is a synergy between them. They can feed off each other and achieve things which alone they could not, as the message of each is spread through the net. This is a lesson some newspaper editors and proprietors – with their dog-in-the-manger attitude to links – could do well to take on board.
But the main lesson to emerge is of the power of the internet as an information tool. Here, from a tiny room in deepest West Yorkshire, without ever leaving the desk, one can reach out through the portal of the computer and conduct a world-wide search, ranging – as this one has done – from Copenhagen, New York and Washington, to India, China, Japan and all points between.
Used effectively, this gives the "citizen" unimaginable power. Searches that would have taken weeks and months, requiring resources beyond the scope of the individual, are now within the reach of anyone equipped with the internet and a laptop costing no more than a few hundred pounds, working out of a back room in a normal home – and they can be done in hours and days.
Business, government and even (or especially) social discourse now relies on the internet but, in so doing, they leave footprints which are difficult to hide. And, if they are there to find, we will find them. In a world dominated by vested interests and crooks like Pachauri, the internet is a tool for freedom.
PACHAURI THREAD
There are lies, damn lies and then there is Pachauri. James Delingpole has him sussed.
But for an example of investigative journalism, you can do no better than the Indian online journalMeriNews - slogan "power to the people".
"According to the content published in The Sunday Telegraph, 'Pachauri had set up an astonishing worldwide portfolio of business interests with bodies which have been investing billions of dollars in organizations dependent on the IPCC's policy recommendations.' ... Let's hope this controversy subsides like a drop of rain in the sea, otherwise it would blight India's name in the international scenario," it says.
A slightly different view elsewhere though, and here, while Bishop Hill gives Pachauri a hammering. Devil's Kitchen declares: "It's war! "
PACHAURI THREAD
... says millionaire businessman Dr Rajendra Pachauri in response to our article in The Sunday Telegraph.
"These are a pack of lies from people who are getting desperate," he tells the Times of India. They want to go after the guy whose voice is being heard. I haven't pocketed a single penny from my association with companies and institutes. All honoraria that I get goes to TERI and to its Light a Billion Lives campaign for reaching solar power to people without electricity. All my dealings are totally above board."
The poor man is having a little trouble with setting out his case though. He points out that the previous IPCC chairman was in the World Bank and the one before that was a professor. "Can you then say the university benefited from his association with IPCC?"
And the point is? In addition to his paid post as Director-General of TERI, Pachauri has taken on over twenty additional posts since becoming chairman of the IPCC – another of his paid posts.
As for the link with the Tata group, Pachauri claims, "Our ties ended when Darbari Seth, who was on our board, died in 1999. We haven't received a single penny from Tatas for years and have no ties with them." Which is why, of course, up to January 2003 the "T" in TERI stood for "Tata", only then being changed to The Energy & Resources Institute.
Then, as we recalled, TERI's own communication manager Annapurna Vancheswaran said nothing had really changed. "We have not severed our past relationship with the Tatas. It's only (the change of name) for convenience," was the official line, four years after Pachauri says he has severed all ties with them.
Then there is the little matter of one of the Tata group of companies being listed currently as a corporate sponsor. To add to that, TERI has two ongoing projects with Tata, one which started in January and the other in July, plus eight completed projects from 2001-2007. That sort of suggests not only a link, but an ongoing relationship (screen grab - one of many - below).
We also have one of Pachauri's other little enterprises, a spin-off called the TERI Business Council for Sustainable Development (TERI-BCSD). Its president is Dr RK Pachauri, its co-chair is Dr J J Irani, described as "Tata Group of Companies". One of the vice-chairs is Mr Homi Khusrokhan, Tata Chemicals Ltd. Its members include Tata Chemicals Ltd, Tata Motors Ltd, Tata Quality Management Services and Tata Steel Ltd.
And who should be on TERI's Advisory Board? Ah! the very same Dr Jamshed J Irani, this time described as Director of Tata Sons Limited, Bombay House, 24 Homi Mody Street, Mumbai – 400001, Maharashtra. Irani is right at the centre of the beast.
Tata Sons, says the company, is the promoter of all key Tata companies and holds the bulk of shareholding in these companies. The chairman of Tata Sons has traditionally been the chairman of the Tata group. Tata Sons is the owner of the Tata name and the Tata trademark, which are registered in India and several other countries.
Socially, Pachauri and Tata also seem to get on quite well. On 13 Novemberlast year, Pachauri was invited round to the residence of the Norwegian ambassador in Delhi to sign a £6.3 million (60 million Norwegian Kroners) contract between the Norwegian government and TERI. His institute was being hired for five years to carry out work on energy, environment and climate change issues "in partnership with other institutes."
To celebrate, Pachauri, described as "Chair of the Noble Peace Prize-winning, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change", and Ratan Tata were guests of honour for the evening at a "Norwegian Creative Experience". Ratan Tata happens to be the Chairman of Tata Sons, the very head honcho, pictured below left being welcomed by Ambassador Ann Ollestad.
Our Dr Pachauri is not only a liar - he is not even a very good liar.
Nevertheless, this does not stop him claiming of us that we "are part of the same vested interest group which hacked the server of UK's East Anglia University." He adds: "They are getting desperate because the world is now serious about moving away from fossil fuels. I want to ask them how much money they spent in the operation? Hacking a server is a costly exercise," he said.
That isn't really worth an answer. It is not us who are desperate. This man is clutching at straws. But he doesn't give up. He argues that TERI submits its yearly accounts to the government under Section 12 of the income tax law. "We fully comply with all government laws," he said.
Hey! But that's not the point we made. Does he publish TERI's accounts in its annual report? Does he publish his salary as Director General? Er ... no. Do we even get to know what his IPCC salary is? Er ... no.
Pachauri, who recently took up the post of the head of the Climate and Energy Institute at Yale University, then says the appointment was held up for a while because he had insisted that his salary be credited to TERI. "My conscience is clear and that is why I am cool towards these allegations."
That, of course, is a good move. If his Yale salary (which is likely to be at least in six figures) was paid directly to him, he would have to pay US income tax on it. And, as Tony Blair has just found out, the details are then publicly available through the IRS. As it is, he can launder the money through TERI and take the money out of the business in India where there is less scrutiny.
On whether he intends to take legal action against us, Pachauri says he hadn’t made up his mind. "Action against these people only gives dignity to these guys," he adds.
But he dare not. If he chose to sue, we could demand full disclosure of his financial affairs, through the courts. And then the millionaire businessman would have some explaining to do – not least how he is booking his business expenses to the IPCC. And yes, I do have the evidence.
Up yours, Pachauri, you are a thief as well as a liar.
PACHAURI THREAD
Richard Gledhill, head of climate change at the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the US acceptance of the Copenhagen Accord would "accelerate huge growth in the global carbon market", possibly tripling its size over the next decade.
That's what it's all about.
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