Just in: Environmentalist RK Pachauri quits as the chair of United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Pachauri, who has been accused of sexual harassment, went on leave from The Energy and Resources Institute or TERI, the think tank that he leads.

In a letter, he said that he had decided to go on leave to remove fears that he would influence the case.

"In view of the present circumstances and in the interest of taking an immediate decision for removing any fears of my influencing the due process being followed within the institute, I am proceeding on leave for the time being with immediate effect," the 74-year-old activist wrote.

Dr Pachauri, the chairman of the Nobel prize winning IPCC, has been accused of sexually harassing a woman employee.