Mr. Rajendra M. Shende is United Nations expert on the environmental issues, particularly related to transfer of environmentally sound technologies and the implementation of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in the developing countries and countries with economies in transition. His current activities span almost all of the world and include the specific capacity building and technology support projects in 145 countries that are engaged in implementation of the Montreal Protocol to protect the Ozone Layer. He helped more than 100 national governments in developing their road maps , strategies and action plan to comply with the Montreal Protocol. He is advising the governments in these countries to set up the policies and regulations for compliance with the Protocol and guiding the industries to adopt to the alternative ozone friendly technologies.

Before joining United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Mr. Shende gained experience of nearly 20 years in one of the best managed private and public sector companies including group of Tatas in India. He rose to corporate management position in charge of large scale project management, research and development, diversification, environmental impact assessment, cleaner production and renewable energy. He studied Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) .
He was part of the India's international negotiating team for establishing the financial mechanism for the implementation of MEA i.e. the Montreal Protocol.
He joined UNEPs Division of Technology, Industry and Economics in Paris in 1992 and as Programme leader he pioneered new approaches to mainstream small countries in the implementation of the Global Environmental Accords. In late 1990s he led the establishment of Energy and Climate Change activities in UNEP and was later engaged in policy advice to the governments on the energy efficiency, renewable energy and climate change activities for the benefit of the developing countries. He has organized workshops on Clean Development Mechanism in more than 20 countries under the Kyoto Protocol He has been coordinating lead author on special report on Safeguarding the Ozone Layer and global climate system being developed by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC- 2005) . He was Review Editor for IPCC Special Report on Technology Transfer ( IPCC- year2000)
Mr Shende's current work focuses on the Coherent and coordinated implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and leveraging the lessons from the Montreal protocol for the MEAs in Chemicals and Atmospheric Clusters.
Developing the partnerships with the industries, international organizations, academia and NGOs has been his forte . Such approach has set up new directions to enable countries to meet the compliance with the MEAs. As a part of strategy to build the capacity of the countries to comply with the global environmental agreements his programme launched 'Green Customs Initiative' which is partnership of seen convention secretariats and three international organizations that included WCO, INTERPOL and UNEP.
In May 2005 his Programme became first programme in the UN system to win the award from USEPA for its work on the protection of the Ozone Layer. His programme received in December 2005 a Certificate of Appreciation from the President of Senegal on behalf of all the African countries for assisting the countries in African continent. The Partnerships that his programme facilitated , i.e RefrigerantsNaturallywith Unilever, Coca Cola, McDonalds and Greenpeace ; and another partnership on SolarChill with WHO, UNICEF, Greenpeace and others won the awards from USEPA ( 2005) and UK ( 2006) industries respectively.