UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Rajendra Pachauri, fighting an accusation of sexual harassment, resigned Tuesday as chief of the United Nations' climate change panel.

Police in Delhi, India, are investigating charges by a woman, 29, who claims Pachauri's alleged harassment of her included unwanted e-mail and text messages while she worked at a New Delhi policy institute he headed, the Energy Resources Institute.


Pachauri, 74, has denied the claims, but Tuesday sent a letter of resignation from his position on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He withdrew from a high-level IPCC meeting in Kenya which began Tuesday, because of "issues demanding his attention in India," a spokesman said.

Pachauri has been IPCC chairman since 2002 and was expected to retire when his term ends in October 2015. After he received the position he immersed himself in scientific research and concluded climate change is a real threat; his demand for action by global politicians gave him, a reputation for outspokenness.

In 2007 he was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, on behalf of IPCC, which was shared by Al Gore.