Equating Pachauri with a tall tree which collects a lot of winds, Boer,the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change said: He (Pachauri) is a very respected international scientist and is leading the IPCC in a very dedicated way.

Ramesh,too,echoed the support,and even as he took potshots at the weakness of the global climate science panel over the recent controversial revelations,said the government supported Pachauris continuation as IPCC head.But he,at the same time,announced that a scientist from India would now accompany Pachauri in his meetings of the bureau of the IPCCthe smaller set of 38 representatives that carry on the work on behalf of the 130-member country body.Subodh Kumar Sharma,adviser to the ministry and a long-standing participant in the climate science talks,is expected to represent India in the IPCC bureau meetings.

Ramesh said,The Indian government is backing Pachauri to the hilt.Let there be no doubt on that.There is no wavering in the support of the Indian government.The PM and others in the government are supporting him as chairman of IPCC.

India provides financial help to the scientific panel to run Pachauris IPCC support office in India.It provides an annual grant for support staff and other functions of the office,which Ramesh justified with precedents of earlier chairmen of the scientific panel being financially backed by governments as well as the World Bank.

But the tenuous relations between Pachauri and the government again came to the fore with sources indicating that the latter was not likely to participate in a closed-door meeting of a select group of international negotiators that TERI will host as part of its Delhi Sustainable Development Summit.The idea of a closeddoor meet of official negotiators from industrialised countries and others,to be also attended by the UN climate conventions executive secretary Evo De Boer,has not gone down well with the government.Environment ministry officials refused to comment while TERI officials remained unavailable.

At the same time,Ramesh,who had minced no words in criticising Pachauri and the conclusions of the IPCC on the rate of melting of the Himalayan glaciers,was relatively easy on both on Thursday during his interaction with the media.Even while warning against climate evangelism he backed the IPCC,calling it a respected institution.

IIM-A fest earns carbon credits

Ahmedabad: Chaos,the annual cultural fest of IIM-Ahmedabad reduced its carbon footprint by getting carbon credits on basis of carbon emissions recorded during this event.GreenTech Club took up the project to make the four-day fiesta,a green event.They calculated the carbon emissions based on modes of travel used by participants and students,electricity,water and fuel consumed while on campus and concluded that close to 50 tonnes of carbon was emitted during the four-day festival.These were traded for 50 Voluntary Carbon Units,neutralising the emissions with the help of General Carbon,advisor and investor across the carbon value chain,based in Mumbai.