For more than a decade, R. K. Pachauri has been one of the most powerful men in the global climate change apparatus. Today he's being dubbed a sex pest over allegations that broke last week about sexually harassing female staff.

Pachauri was head of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from 2002 until last week, when he resigned over charges laid in an Indian court. Now the man who joined Al Gore in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for work on climate change is facing a second claim of sexual misconduct according to The Times of London.

A second woman has come forward to claim that Rajendra Pachauri, a leading authority on climate change, was a serial sex pest who harassed her and other women working for him.

Dr Pachauri, 74, a Nobel prize-winner who quit as chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last week, resigned at the weekend from the Indian equivalent after fresh allegations of sexual misconduct emerged.

The Australian newspaper reports that the former climate boss at the UN faces charges of "outraging a woman’s modesty, stalking, sexual harassment and criminal intimidation" all of which could land the 74 year-old in jail for up to five years. The paper also says other charges could be pending.

Acting for the two women, human rights lawyer and women’s activist Vrinda Grover said: “Presently there are three (women making allegations) but I would not close the list as there are many that are not speaking out.”

The allegations laid out in court documents detail unwanted hugging, kissing, grabbing and steamy - and inappropriate for the workplace - texts, emails and WhatsApp messages.