South Korean climate change expert is the new IPCC chief

NEW DELHI: South Korean climate change expert, Hoesung Lee, was on late Tuesday nightelected as the new chief of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), succeeding R K Pachauri who had to resign from this UN body in February in the wake of an allegation of sexual harassment against him by his junior colleague.

Lee is a professor of the economics of climate change, energy and sustainable development at Korea University in Seoul, South Korea.

He has been the vice chair of the IPCC since 2008. After his win, Lee has become the fourth person to lead the IPCC following Bert Bolin, Bob Watson and Pachauri. Indian scientist Pachauri had served the IPCC for longest period of time. He was first elected in 2002 and then re-elected unopposed in 2008.

After his stepping down from the chair in February, vice-chair Ismail El Gizouli has been the acting chair of the IPCC.

Lee was one of the six candidates contested for the post of the IPCC chair.

The other candidates who contested in the election include Chris Field of Stanford University of the USA and Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, an IPCC vice-chair from Belgium. Jean-Pascal was the first candidate who had announced his candidature for the post after Pachauri's unceremonious exit.

Other three in the reckoning were Ogunlade Davidson (nominated by Sierra Leone), Nebojsa Nakicenovic (nominated by Austria and Montenegro) and Thomas Stocker of Switzerland.

The IPCC was created to evaluate and synthesise climate change science in 1988 by the United Nations (UN) as a project of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

In the election of the IPCC chair, every member country has one vote each. For the election to be valid, representatives from at least 98 of the 195 countries must be physically present to cast their vote and one candidate must have at least 50% of the votes to win.