Rajendra Shende

Rajendra Madhavrao Shende (born 13 July 1949), an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and former director in United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is currently serving as the founder director of Green TERRE Foundation. which is a not-for-profit organization working towards global goals of NetZero, Carbon Neutrality, Climate Change, Global Warming and Environment, as per various protocols of United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs). He is the ideator and director of Smart Campus Cloud Network (SCCN) which is a network of global universities which have pledged to make their campuses carbon neutral by achieving NetZero targets. This program has been widely acclaimed as innovative and practical solution which offers the students hands-on experience and expertise in NetZero and Carbon Neutrality. He previously held the position as chairman of TERRE Policy Centre which is a not-for-profit organization engaged in the policy development and project based advocacy on the sustainable development. Before August 2011, he was the Head of the OzonAction Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme, Division of the Technology, Industry and Economics (UNEP DTIE) in Paris.

He served as review editor for the IPCC Special report on Technology Transfer in 2000 and was a coordinating lead author for the IPCC/TEAP special report on Safeguarding the Ozone layer and Global Climate System in 2005. The work of the IPCC, including the contributions of many scientists, was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

His UNEP programme became the first in the United Nations to bag an award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for global efforts to protect the ozone layer. He also won a United States EPA award for Climate Protection.

In 2006 he was felicitated by President of India Dr. Abdul Kalam for his role in development of the solar vaccine cooler for the poor, rural and remote communities. He is a member steering committee of key UNEP reports on interlinkages between Ozone Layer Protection and climate change. He has adopted his village Rahimatpur to develop it into a role model and a Social Laboratory for the sustainable development. Provided by Wikipedia