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Feminist leader of IRENA gets booted out by United Arab Emirates,

...”The Emirates asked France for my head,” Pelosse said, adding that one of the reasons was that she had worn a T-shirt reading “IRENA recruits 50 percent women” at a climate conference in Amsterdam at the end of 2009.

Fearful’ Frenchwoman replaced as renewables agency chief, Google hosted news, AFP:, 26 oct 10, ABU DHABI — Adnan Amin of Kenya will replace Helene Pelosse of France as the interim director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency, the head of its preparatory commission said on Monday.

Pelosse, meanwhile, told AFP that she had faced “intimidation” and been forced out of the job by the United Arab Emirates, which hosts the agency, less than 18 months after having been elected.

………..”The Emirates asked France for my head,” Pelosse said, adding that one of the reasons was that she had worn a T-shirt reading “IRENA recruits 50 percent women” at a climate conference in Amsterdam at the end of 2009.”Since I’ve been here, I’ve done several things which have led each time to the (UAE) foreign minister calling Paris to say, ‘This does not please us at all,'” she said in a telephone interview.
Pelosse said that in June she had publicly accused the UAE of delaying payments and jeopardising the financial future of the agency.

“I have undergone enormous pressures,” she said, adding she had faced “intimidation” by intrusions into her home, had her phone and IRENA offices bugged, and baggage searched at the hotel.

Pelosse said she had reached the point of fearing for her security and was leaving the UAE on Tuesday…….

IRENA announced last Tuesday that Pelosse was leaving the agency less than 18 months after she was elected interim director general, beating off challengers from Denmark, Greece and Spain.

She had previously served as deputy head of staff in the private office of French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borlo

AFP: ‘Fearful’ Frenchwoman replaced as renewables agency chief

October 26, 2010 - Posted by Christina MacPherson | MIDDLE EAST, politics international | climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy