UNIDO Director-General receives TERI University honours

NEW DELHI, 28 October 2010 – Kandeh K. Yumkella, the Director-General  of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), today received  the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the TERI University in New Delhi.

Yumkella was honoured for promoting sustainable industrial development in developing countries and economies in transition.

“TERI University applauds his leadership in a variety of initiatives focused on the under-privileged sections of society, and for the promotion of increased international cooperation, specially South-South cooperation, in the fields of sustainable industrial development, renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation,” said an announcement released by TERI.

“Since becoming the Director-General of UNIDO in 2005, Dr. Yumkella has strengthened country level partnerships with other UN and development agencies to accelerate progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. In recognition of his leadership and his passion for energy and environment-related causes, he was appointed Chair of UN-Energy by the UN Secretary-General in 2007, and in 2009, Chair of the Secretary-General’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change.”

Dr. Yumkella received the honour along with Tejendra Khanna, Lt. Governor of Delhi, and Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company.

The TERI University, established initially as “TERI School of Advanced Studies” in 1998, and subsequently renamed as the TERI University in 2006, was conceived to cater to the need of disseminating the reservoir of knowledge created by TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute), a non-profit research institute set up in 1974 for research along with documentation and information dissemination activities in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development.

The Chancellor of TERI University is Rajendra Pachauri, who also chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former President Al Gore.

For more information, please contact:

Mikhail Evstafyev

UNIDO Advocacy and Communication Coordinator

Telephone: (+43-1) 26026-5021Mobile: (+43-699) 1459-7329

E-mail