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Rajendra Shende

Mr. Rajendra Shende, IIT-Alumni and former Director in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Mr. Shende is founder and Chairman of TERRE Policy Centre and is leading expert in sustainable development technologies and policies at global and local level. In United Nations he coordinated the implementation of singularly successful global environmental accord for the protection of the ozone layer. He was leading proponent of leveraging inter linkages of the multilateral environmental agreements, mainly the Montreal Protocol (Ozone Agreement) and Kyoto Protocol (Climate agreement ). He advised in146 developing countries to implement the Montreal Protocol and derive the climate benefits by mitigating emissions of Green House Gases ( GHGs) . He strategized social media approaches for UNEP to promote implementation of the global accords at local level. He was one of the first bloggers in UN-system. Mr.Shende was Coordinating Lead Author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC) that shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with Al Gore. He is recipient of number of global and national awards that include Climate Protection award from USA. His was the first ever programme in UN system to win Stratospheric Ozone Layer Protection award from USA. The global partnership he forged to deploy Natural Refrigerants won Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government award. India’s former President Dr.Abdul Kalam felicitated him for the his work in multi-agency Public-Private Partnership that developed a model product Solar Refrigerator for preservation of vaccine. Mr Shende was recognized by UNEP for his unique approaches in creating action-based awareness , networking and capacity building programme , which later became models for other environmental agreements. Regular speaker, he has addressed the public meetings in Beijing University, MIT, Berkeley, INSEAD, HSC He published more than 100 awareness documents including ‘ Two Protocols One Solution’ and ‘ Networking Counts’ In TERRE, a not-for-profit organization he mentors the strategies for energy and food security through developing evidence based policies and promoting action based projects and partnerships. He continues to be advisor for United Nations activities and spends his time between India and France.

Water, Water Everywhere. But where exactly? Treasure hunt for water begins

Water, Water Everywhere. But where exactly? Treasure hunt for water begins

March 22, 2021

Yes, there is water everywhere. We all know that 70 pc of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. But for a glass of water, every second a woman in rural India walks an average of 173 kilometres – the distance between New Delhi and Kurukshetra– to fetch potable water in ...

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Circadian rhythm and heliotropism

Circadian rhythm and heliotropism

February 5, 2021

Have you heard of circadian rhythm and heliotropism? These phrases are the scientific terminologies to describe the behaviour of a sunflower in the fields. The sunflower turns to be always facing the Sun. Greta Thunberg, who turned 18 just about a month back on January 2021, real...

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Vaccine Maitri: India shows the way to cooperative approach in combatting pandemic

Vaccine Maitri: India shows the way to cooperative approach in combatting pandemic

February 2, 2021

French scientist Louis Pasteur discovered the boon of vaccination by using a weakened virus way back in the 19th century with the first vaccine that he developed for chicken cholera. Since then, such vaccines have become the first line of defence against many communicable disease...

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Carbon neutral economy can be historical ‘new normal’

Carbon neutral economy can be historical ‘new normal’

December 11, 2020

December 12, 2020, marks the 5th Anniversary of Paris Climate Agreement. The year 2020 is the only year since 1992 when the annual global meeting of United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change, UNFCCC, has not been held, due to COVID restrictions. Paradoxically, each y...

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Sensationalism puts media in its own planetary crisis

Sensationalism puts media in its own planetary crisis

November 18, 2020

Fake and phony news does not emanate only from the desire to misguide the people. It also comes from the inherent and impulsive tendency of competitive media to ‘Break the News’. Half-cooked verification before reporting and impetuous language while reporting and scant remors...

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Whoever wins US Presidential election 2020, Earth is the loser

Whoever wins US Presidential election 2020, Earth is the loser

November 3, 2020

November 4 is poised to be the new Earth Day when the fierce race will come to a frightful end. Then will begin humanity’s race to save planet Earth. Many postal votes would still be in counting on that day, so also the prophesied views of the climate scientists, carbon emissio...

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This contribution of Trump is not much talked about

This contribution of Trump is not much talked about

November 2, 2020

When 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore, former vice President of USA, there was a global appreciation of the work done by the winners in bringing climate change issue at the centre of the current and future ...

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Time for ‘spinning wheel’ diplomacy between China & India

Time for ‘spinning wheel’ diplomacy between China & India

October 2, 2020

India is surely not aiming to become a regional, let alone global superpower. After the end of the Cold War of 20th century and  ‘unipolar’ hegemony of US since then, the world has witnessed China’s emergence as a global economic power. It is an open secret that most of th...

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On its 75th anniversary, UN missing from COVID19 action

On its 75th anniversary, UN missing from COVID19 action

September 29, 2020

Two years ago United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres flew into New Delhi to bestow the ‘Champions of the Earth’ award to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had won it alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. In 2015, India and France had launched the Internationa...

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On World Ozone Day 2020, relearning forgotten lessons from past global success for COVID19

On World Ozone Day 2020, relearning forgotten lessons from past global success for COVID19

September 15, 2020

It was the decade of 1970s. A dozen men had already landed on the moon. There was an exhilarating mood all around, mainly in the developed countries. ‘‘Sky is not the limit,’’ scientists and technocrats would often boast. The doors of the universe could be commanded from ...

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Teachers Day 2020: My Teacher and My Educator

Teachers Day 2020: My Teacher and My Educator

September 5, 2020

As India marks Teachers Day 2020, it is an opportune time to pay homage to my teacher, Professor Kamath of IIT Bombay, who preferred to say that he was an educator, not a teacher. But to me, he was much more than either. I was waiting nervously outside Professor N.R Kamath’s ro...

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Independence Day 2020: New Normal and Better Normal

Independence Day 2020: New Normal and Better Normal

August 15, 2020

As India marks its 74th independence day, it is an occasion to see how far have we come since our ‘tryst with destiny’ began on that fateful day of August 15, 1947. For a nation ruled by foreign powers for centuries, 74 years of independence is not a lot of time. But in a rel...

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