New Delhi: The head of the UN's climate science panel, RK Pachauri, has stepped down, the organisation announced Tuesday, amid claims that he sexually harassed a subordinate.

"The bureau of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agreed on Tuesday... to designate vice-chair Ismail El Gizouli as acting IPCC chair," it said. "The designation of Gizouli follows the decision by Rajendra K Pachauri, PhD, to step down as chairman of the IPCC effective today."

The Energy and Resources Institute's (TERI) Director-General, Pachauri, is facing sexual harassment allegations by a woman employee. He had withdrawn his bail application from Delhi High Court on Monday and is likely to move the trial court for relief.

On February 19, the High Court had modified its earlier order restraining media houses from publishing allegations made against Pachauri by a woman research analyst of the city-based think tank. Pachauri, while seeking an injunction against media from publishing the matter, had denied all the allegations and said he has been a victim of hacking.