By Millicent Njeri / Press Release
Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and also Director-General of India's Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has won the 2010 UN-HABITAT Cities Lecture Award. In a statement on Monday, the agency cited his "outstanding contribution and leadership" on climate change.
The award is presented by UN-HABITAT through the Global Research Network on Human Settlements (HS-Net), an international board that advises the agency on its Global Report on Human Settlements. The award seeks to recognize outstanding and sustained contribution to research, thinking and practice in the human settlements field. In selecting Dr. Pachauri for the 2010 UN-HABITAT Cities Lecture Award, UN-HABITAT wishes to recognize his outstanding contribution and leadership in the area of climate change and, in particular, his contribution to knowledge and global action on climate change and cities. Dr. Pachauri, who received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), also served as President of the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi 2004-06.
As well as an honourary cash prize of USD 10,000, a key component of the award is the delivery, by the award winner, of a lecture before a live audience. Dr. Pachauri will present his lecture at 1400 on Tuesday 23rd March at the World Urban Forum, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Past winners of the UN-HABITAT Cities Lecture Award include Professor John Friedman, University of British Columbia (2006), Professor Martha Schteingart, El Colegio de México (2007) and Professor Anthony Gar-on Yeh, University of Hong Kong (2008).
The author of more than 23 books and 100 journal papers, Dr. Pachauri has had a profound influence on thinking and practice in the field of energy and climate change. Other awards he has received include India's second-highest civilian award, the PadmaVibhushan and the French Légion D’Honneur.
He has held professorship and research fellow positions in prominent institutions in India and other countries, including as a Senior Faculty of the Administrative Staff College of India, as an Assistant Professor and Visiting Faculty Member in the Department of Economics and Business, North Carolina State University, USA, as a Visiting Professor at the West Virginia University, as a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Resource Systems Institute, East-West Center, USA, as a McCluskey Fellow at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, USA and as a Visiting Research Fellow, The World Bank, Washington, DC. Furthermore, in 2009, he was appointed Director of the Yale Climate and Energy Institute.
He has also held, and continues to hold, key positions in various national and international committees and boards, including the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India (2001-2004), Advisory Board of the International Solar Energy Society (1991-1997), World Resources Institute Council (1992) and the Asian Energy Institute (1992 onwards). More recently, he has been appointed a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Climate Change.
