Filming of documentary was like making feature film for him. It was always gripping plot in each of his product, a complicated environmental science explained in a simple, straight but stunning manner. And like a film from Hollywood or Bollywood, the titles of his films were equally inviting. One of the better-known and gifted environmental film producers is no more. Robert Lamb breathed his last on 12th February in UK after a battle with cancer that he fought bravely.
Mr. Rajendra M. Shende, former Director in United Nations Environment Programme, is a leading expert in the sustainable technologies and policies. As a head of the Paris based Ozon Action Programme of UNEP, he worked with the governments in 146 developing countries’ to develop their national management plans to eliminate use of Ozone Depleting Substances and contribute to the mitigation of climate change. Through the teams of professionals and experts that he led from UNEP’s five offices worldwide i.e. Paris, Bangkok, Nairobi, Bahrain and Panama City he led the capacity building and technology support programme under the Multilateral Ozone Fund and Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The programme has contributed in stabilizing the Stratospheric Ozone Layer and preventing the global catastrophe by enabling the developing countries to comply with the Montreal Protocol. The Montreal Protocol is now considered as the most successful Multilateral Environmental Agreement so far, having put the Ozone layer on the path of recovery.
Mr. Shende was Coordinating Lead Author of Special Report on Safe Guarding the Climate and Ozone Layer prepared by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) that shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 with Al Gore.
He was awarded USA’s prestigious Climate Protection award in 2009. The Ozon Action Programme that he initiated and managed within UNEP became the first ever programme in UN system to win Stratospheric Ozone Layer Protection award from USA, in 2005. He also won the special appreciation from the Heads of the State of Senegal, Mongolia, Bangladesh and Maldives. Recently, all the 53 African countries together felicitated him for his efforts to assist the African countries in building their capacity to implement the Montreal Protocol.
The innovative partnerships that he forged with industries and NGOs have made global impacts in the Consumer Good Forum and have won number of awards at the international fora including Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Mr. Shende is Chemical Engineering by qualification from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. Before joining UN, Mr. Shende had senior management career in the private sector in India and was part of the task force set up by the Government of India to negotiate the multilateral environmental agreement, the Montreal protocol.
An active member of the IIT Alumni, Mr. Shende strongly believes that the solutions for the global problems are potentially in the hands of the local actors. While working on globally he along with his colleagues in TERRE has launched sustainable and climate resilient programme at the village level in India and China.
Author of numerous published policy papers, Mr. Shende has given various presentations for the public as well as for the universities like MIT-USA, Swiss Technical Institute and Beijing University, INSEAD and HEC-Paris. He has been interviewed for TV, radio and number of international magazines including French and Italian. Strategizing the use of Social Media networks to outreach environmental messages and engaging media though innovative partnerships have been Mr. Shende’s recent priorities. His present activities are in the field of renewable energy, water and climate change. He is associated with number of training organizations in the Scotland and Italy.