Newsmaker

Rajendra Kumar Pachauri

It’s rewarding to be a climatologist these days, especially if you are as passionate about nature as Rajendra Kumar Pachauri. The 67-year-old Pachauri is Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize along with former US Vice President Al Gore. This is yet another feather in the cap of Pachauri, who has been heading The Energy and Resources Institute, first as Director from 1981, and then as Director General from 2001. Speaking to the media, after the announcement, Pachauri said: “This award thrusts a new responsibility on our shoulders. We have to do more, and have many more miles to go.”

Pachauri, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2001, is arguably the most influential voice in India’s environmental sector and is largely responsible for the sector now being perceived as “cool”.

He began his career as a manager at the Varanasi-based Diesel Locomotive Works in the 1960s but soon left for the North Carolina State University from where he obtained an MS in Industrial Engineering, and later a PhD in Economics. Pachauri is also an avid cricket buff. A workaholic who puts in 17 hours every day of the week, he still finds time to play cricket in inter-corporate tournaments.

The Nobel Prize, in some ways, brings him and Gore back a full circle. The latter, opposing his candidature at the IPCC, had called Pachauri, whom George W. Bush had backed, a “let’s drag our feet” candidate. The IPCC Chairman, who had then hit back at the “derogatory remarks”, obviously feels differently now. “I feel privileged sharing it with someone as distinguished as him (Gore),” he told the media, following the announcement of the prize.