Five in the race for the top position at UN climate body

Five nominations have been received for elections to the post of Chairman of the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change, a position held by RK Pachauri till February this year.

IPCC, set up by the United Nations, is by far the world’s biggest body for climate science.

Pachauri, who held the position since 2002, resigned in the wake of sexual harassment allegations by an employee at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

Election during IPCC session The five nominations received are from: Hoesung Lee of the Republic of Korea, Thomas Stocker of Switzerland, Jean-Pascal van Ypersele of Belgium, Chris Field of the US and Nebojsa Nakicenovic of Austria and Montenegro, according to the website of IPCC.

The Chairman will be elected at the IPCC’s 42{+n}{+d} session, scheduled to be held in Croatia in October.

The person who gets elected will have the privilege of making the opening statement at the upcoming 21{+s}{+t} Conference of Parties to United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (COP 21) at Paris this December.

Pachauri was re-elected unopposed in 2008, but this time around, it promises to be a hotly-contested election, given the election pitches made by the candidates. (Chris Field, for instance, declares himself to be “a scientist of the highest calibre.”)

The IPCC is a scientific body under the UN, set up in 1988 “to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impact.”

IPCC website notes that thousands of scientists from all over the world volunteer to contribute to the work of IPCC on voluntary basis.