Dr Ashok Khosla

Ashok Khosla, Chairman, Development Alternatives

Ashok Khosla is a globally recognized environmentalist based in New Delhi. He received his MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and his PhD in experimental physics from Harvard University .  He set up and headed India’s (and the global South’s) first government Office of Environment and then the first global environmental information system, the UN’s INFOterra.  Subsequently, he founded Development Alternatives,  the world’s first social enterprise for innovation and large scale application of appropriate (or “frugal”) technology with direct relevance to eradicating poverty and regenerating the environmental resource base.  He also chairs the Hydropower Sustainability Standard Council.

He served for a decade as the founding co-chair of the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Resource Panel (UNEP-IRP) and is internationally known for pioneering and contributing to the concepts and praxis of sustainable development.  He was President of IUCN (2008 to 2012) and of the Club of Rome (2005 to 2012).   [Over five decades, he has actively contributed to the environmental policies and programmes of global institutions such as UNDP, UNU, UNESCO, the World Bank, the U.S. Academy of Sciences, WWF, IISD, the World Future Council and ICSU/SCOPE.]

Ashok Khosla was awarded the OBE, the UN Sasakawa Environment Prize, the Sheikh Zayed International Environment Prize, WWF’s Duke of Edinburgh Medal for Conservation and UNEP’s Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Science-Policy Interface.  He was awarded an honorary LLD by Simon Fraser University, Canada.

He is a Senior Advisor of the World Future Council.