Have we lost fight against Climate Change? AI may not turn the table but make us climate resilient. 

Reading Time: 2 minutes AI can be ‘Rescue Mechanism’  to bring us back from the cliff. Yes, we are standing on the cliff, but we do not know that we could fall deep down. That is because the there is thick fog in from of us. That fog is from the air pollution! Air Pollution is other side of the …

The elephant in the conference room at COP26 in Glasgow

Reading Time: 7 minutes Climate finance lags way behind rich world commitments As the United States mounts pressure on developing nations, including India, to commit to net zero emissions by 2050, President Joe Biden and other developed world nations need to remember and fulfil their part of the deal as well – providing adequate financial assistance to the developing …

Environment and Emergency are Synonyms

Reading Time: 3 minutes 5th June World Environment Day (WED). It is an annual global event coordinated by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) where I led the most successful global programme of capacity building of the 146 developing countries that resulted in ‘flattening’ the rising curve (to use current COVID19 terminology!) of Ozone Layer Depletion. Now the ozone layer …

Acceptance Speech – Honaris Causa

Reading Time: 6 minutes Rajendra Shende, Chairman TERRE Policy Centre, Former Director UNEP and IIT Alumnus Chief Guest Dr G Madhavan-ji Nair-ji, founder President Dr Vishwanath-ji Karad, Executive Presidents Prof Dr Mangesh-ji Karad, my IIT Bombay colleague Vice Chancellor Sunil-ji Rai, Distinguished Guests, young, successful and jubilant Graduates and Post-graduates, their beaming and proud parents and grandparents, professors and …

Wuhan deadly Virus and Wuhan informal Spirit – Is there Missing Link?

Reading Time: 5 minutes By Rajendra Shende, Chairman TERRE Policy Centre, Former Director UNEP, Alumnus of IIT Bombay. This article appeared in Social Asia Monitor ( SAM) & Media India Group on 5th Feb 2020 as : Now that evacuation of Indian students and citizens from Wuhan city and the surrounding area in China has been nearly achieved and …

Reading Time: 3 minutes State-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) on Thursday said it has inked five initial pacts with partners to boost energy efficiency and renewables in the country, aligning with G20 and COP28 commitments. These initiatives are poised to double energy efficiency and triple renewable energy, in line with the ambitious targets set at COP28 and G20, …

Reading Time: < 1 minute Pune, December 1, 2023. As the heat of COP28 UAE builds in Dubai, Pune’s dynamic youth took to the streets, spearheaded by Green Terre Foundation, a global movement for youth-driven action on climate change. Led by 30 students from MIT ADT University, Pune World Peace University, youth wielded powerful Net-Zero message to start action at …

Reading Time: 2 minutes As India positions itself for post-COP28, this youth-led initiative not only captures the attention of the masses but positions youth as catalysts for sustainable transformation. With COP28 on in Dubai, with typical and routine pledges and paper promises,  Indian university youth have started their own COP on the streets of the vibrant city of Pune. …

Reading Time: 2 minutes Partnership with Delhi University to propagate U75 movement for smart campuses In order to expand to north India its U75 movement to make campuses NetZero and start awareness about climate change in the Indian youth, Pune-based Green Terre Foundation has partnered with Delhi University. Over a year after it launched the U75 movement for NetZero …

Reading Time: 2 minutes Today, I returned from Latin America where “The Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week” was kicked off on 23rd October. Sadly, it was again big talk and no action! I held physical events in 4 universities in Peru to launch ‘Net Zero’ movement in Campus. Universities in Peru are now part of @sccnhub (Smart Campus …

Reading Time: 2 minutes The sea is swallowing villages, rivers are sweeping away the dams, fires are gulping forests, heat waves are frying the ecosystem around us. Time is running out to arrest the catastrophic global warming. There is no need at all to question the existence of global warming. One can see all the extreme events happening more intensely …

Reading Time: 3 minutes On the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, a unique initiative of Carbon Neutrality was taken by 12 Universities from across India in accordance with the theme of ‘Not Zero Net Zero’. Vice-Chancellors of these 12 leading institutions took a single-focused voluntary pledge in unison to develop the roadmap towards making …

Reading Time: 6 minutes COVID-19 and Rural India At a time when social media and some of the mainstream ones are spreading messages of communal hatred, stories of humanity are emerging from various parts of the country. Here is one such story from a small town in Satara in Maharashtra. Its roots go back to centuries. Rajendra Shende Chairman …

Reading Time: 4 minutes Yes, Narendra Modi has crossed the boundary of Gujarat and has become a national leader and world’s trailblazer. But when I met youth from three key universities in Gandhinagar, capital of the state of Gujarat, I could not hold my expression that they are “ Youth from Modi’s Gujarat”. Here is why: I was invited …

Reading Time: 2 minutes Time to Start Decarbonisation  We are heading for the sixth extinction of life on the earth. 5th extinction was 65 million years back when dinosaurs and life on the earth vanished when a meteorite struck our planet . The reason? If the temperature rise is to be limited to 2 deg C then unprecedented and far reaching …