Dr. Vinayak Rao, a national of India, is a specialist in Climate Change, International Relations, Leadership and Higher Education. He has a doctorate in Diplomatic Studies and International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University (1993).

In the realm of Climate Change, his core interests include: capacity building in developing countries with a focus on climate negotiations; international law and policy development; and, national implementation.

He is a LEAD Fellow since 2000, having completed a two-year advanced leadership programme as a LEAD Associate during 1998-2000. LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) - an initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation is one of the most ambitious leadership programs ever designed to create new professionals with leadership skills to move forward the agenda of sustainability and human development.

Dr. Rao’s involvement with global environmental issues and higher education such as "greening of the university" and integrating environmental concerns in higher education began during the UN Earth Summit in 1992.

He is currently involved with a long-term project to establish a domain-specific University of Climate Studies in India/South Asia.

Dr. Rao has an extensive experience in the field of environment and climate change over the last two decades and this includes work at various levels – United Nations, academics, policy analysis, strategic consulting and grassroots organizations. In the early stages of his career, he worked as Senior Policy Analyst on climate change at Centre for Science and Environment and as Research Associate with The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi. Subsequently, Dr. Rao taught at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and also worked with the United Nations University in Jordan and Japan focusing on environment, leadership and governance. Besides leading a delegation of 30 emerging leaders from 27 countries to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, he represented the United Nations University at UN Climate Summits in Morocco and India.

He is the Founder and Chief Executive of Climate Change and Environmental Leadership Network (CEL-NET). The Network can be accessed at : www.cel-net.org