Head of U.N. Climate-Change Panel Resigns

Rajendra Pachauri speaks during a climate conference in Paris in November. PHOTO: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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NEW DELHI—Indian environmentalist Rajendra K. Pachauri, a prominent voice on global warming, resigned Tuesday as head of the United Nations’ climate-change panel—a group that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize under his leadership—after a woman filed a sexual-harassment complaint against him with police.

The 29-year-old woman, who works with Mr. Pachauri at The Energy and Resources Institute, a New Delhi think tank, alleged that he harassed her among other things with a series of text messages and emails. No charges have been filed against Mr. Pachauri, who is 74.

A lawyer for Mr. Pachauri said his client “denies all allegations against him.” The lawyer, Shankh Sengupta, said Mr. Pachauri has told investigators that his email and other accounts “were hacked and/or misused,” and that any inappropriate messages the woman believes were from him were in fact sent by someone else.

Mr. Pachauri is a major figure in the global conversation about rising temperatures. The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, under Mr. Pachauri’s leadership, shared the 2007 Nobel with Al Gore, the former U.S. vice president, recognizing its climate-change efforts.

Before the scandal broke, Mr. Pachauri had been expected to travel to Nairobi, Kenya, for the IPCC’s meeting this week. An IPCC statement said Ismail El Gizouli would take over as the panel’s acting chairman.

“The actions taken today will ensure that the IPCC’s mission to assess climate change continues without interruption,” said Achim Steiner of the U.N. Environment Program in the statement.

The allegations against Mr. Pachauri have gotten widespread attention in India, where the issue of women’s safety moved up the national agenda after a fatal 2012 gang rape of a young student on a New Delhi bus. That attack led to an outpouring of grief and pushed India’s government to pass new laws setting harsher penalties for offenders.

The 2012 bus attack has had far-reaching effect, police and activists say, by encouraging women to speak out on subjects once considered taboo in India. Several cases of alleged harassment and sexual assault involving prominent figures have since made headlines.

Partly as a result of these changing attitudes, “Women in smaller towns and cities are saying, ‘Look who she dared to take on. If she can take him on, such a powerful man, I, too, can speak about the harassment I have faced’,” said Jasjit Purewal, co-founder of Sakshi, a New Delhi crisis-intervention center for women.

The allegations of sexual harassment against Mr. Pachauri are detailed in a police complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. A police official in the station where the complaint was filed confirmed the document’s authenticity.

Police are investigating the complaint, in which the young woman describes herself as a research associate at TERI and says Mr. Pachauri made “repeated and constant requests to have a romantic and physical relationship.” She told the police: “I told Dr. Pachauri that I was not interested in any such relationship with him on countless occasions, but he refused to give up.”

The police complaint includes roughly 20 pages of emails, text messages and WhatsApp conversations allegedly between the two. Several of the alleged emails are in the form of poems.

“Dr. Pachauri is cooperating with the investigating agencies. He handed over all the material investigators asked him. He will continue to be available whenever they need him,“ Mr. Pachauri’s lawyer said.

The lawyer for the woman who filed the complaint, meanwhile, told The Wall Street Journal that he is preparing to turn over more items to investigators.

Mr. Pachauri is the author of numerous books, mainly on the subjects of energy and sustainable development. A few years ago he published a novel, Return to Almora, that has been described as steamy by some reviewers on Amazon.com and elsewhere.

Mr. Pachauri began his career managing the production of train engines at an Indian factory. His doctoral dissertation at North Carolina State University examined how coal-dependent states could meet electricity demand.

Later in his career, he began to more strongly advocate for nations to control emissions. In his Nobel address in 2007, he warned climate change would cause “chaos and destruction.”

Mr. Pachauri and the IPCC were swept up in controversy in 2009 when emails from a climate-research center were posted online that showed some scientists involved in IPCC reports trying to squelch criticism of the conclusion that humans are causing climate change.

Mr. Pachauri has worked at TERI, the Delhi think tank, for years. An official there said he has taken a leave of absence from the institute while remaining affiliated with it. TERI’s website describes him as the organization’s director-general.

—Preetika Rana contributed to this article

Write to Jesse Pesta at jesse.pesta@wsj.com