K. Madhava Sarma

In 2009, Sarma collaborated with Nobel Laureate Mario Molina, Durwood Zaelke, Stephen O. Andersen, Veerabhadran Ramanathan & Donald Kaniaru on a paper that laid out the strategy to focus on climate mitigation using existing laws and institutions "Reducing abrupt climate change risk using the Montreal Protocol and other regulatory actions to complement cuts in CO2 emissions." On 15 October 2016, the parties to the Montreal Protocol signed an amendment in Kigali. They agreed to phase down the production and usage of hydroflourocarbons (HFCs), which could prevent up to 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) of global warming by 2100, and continue to protect the ozone layer.

K. Madhava Sarma married Ramalakshmi in 1964 and had three daughters and three grandchildren. He died on September 30, 2010, in Vellore following a brief illness.

In 2007, on the 20th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol, the Parties agreed to accelerate the phase-out of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) – chemicals which are ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) as well as potent greenhouse gases and to amend the Montreal Protocol to control the HFCs which were once necessary substitutes for ODSs, but were no longer needed because environmentally superior technology became available.

In 2007 he co-authored (with Stephen O. Andersen and Kristen N. Taddonio) 'Technology Transfer for the Ozone Layer: Lessons for Climate Change' that assessed over 1000 technology transfer projects of the Montreal Protocol and identified lessons that can be applied towards climate change.

Sarma served as trustee secretary of the board of trustees of the Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI) from 2003 to 2010. CMI was founded in 1989 by Professor C.S. Seshadri and a team of mathematicians as part of the SPIC Science Foundation. Sarma managed reforms including restructuring and government approval of corporate donations as well as identifying and purchasing a building site and supervising the design and construction of the new campus. As a result of these efforts, in October 2005 CMI moved to its new campus at Siruseri, on the southern outskirts of Chennai and in December 2006 was recognized by the Government of India as a University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956. The CMI has instituted the annual K. Madhava Sarma Memorial Distinguished Lecture in memory of his contributions to the Institute.

In 2000, following his retirement from the executive position at the Ozone Secretariat, the Parties to the Montreal Protocol appointed Sarma as a Senior Expert Member of the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP). He was also a member of the Technology and Finance Committee on Montreal Protocol of the Government of India. In 2002, he co-authored (with Stephen O. Andersen) 'Protecting the Ozone Layer: The United Nations History’ – the definitive and comprehensive chronicle of events and processes that helped save the ozone layer.

During Sarma's nine-year tenure as Executive Secretary of the Montreal Protocol from 1991-2000, the Protocol was amended and adjusted to place more stringent controls on halon source gases known to cause ozone depletion grew to well over 150 parties. The Amendment of 1997 created a system of licensing, and the Protocol has stringent reporting, monitoring and verification requirements for 96 ozone-depleting chemicals.

Sarma was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and represented India in the negotiations leading to the London Amendment of the Montreal Protocol in 1990. The London Amendment included the establishment of the Multilateral Fund, the financial mechanism that would enable developing country participation towards enforceable obligations to protect the ozone layer. In 1991 Sarma was appointed to be the Executive Secretary of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Ozone Secretariat).

Since the inception of the Montreal Protocol in 1987, 98% of Ozone Depleting Substances have been phased out. Most Ozone Depleting Substances are also potent greenhouse gases and hence the Protocol also contributes to reduced global warming.

He started his career as trainee Assistant Collector, Tirunelveli district and then as Sub- Collector of Tuticorin district. Over the next two decades he served as Collector of the districts of Cuddalore and Tirunelveli, Commissioner of Madurai Municipal Corporation, Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board, Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu Public Works Department and Special Officer, Chennai Corporation. In 1986 Sarma moved to New Delhi to serve as Joint Secretary and then as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India.

Sarma wrote the Indian Administrative Service(IAS) Civil Services Examination and was successfully inducted into the 1962 batch of the IAS for the state of Tamil Nadu.

K. Madhava Sarma (1938-2010) was the first Executive Secretary of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Ozone Secretariat) from 1991 to 2000 at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He is considered one of the founders and leading figures in the success of the Montreal Protocol that established legally binding controls on the production and consumption of chemicals that cause ozone depletion and damage the stratospheric ozone layer which protects the Earth against the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. These effects include skin cancer, sunburn, permanent blindness and cataracts as well as harm to plants and animals. The Montreal Protocol was recognized by Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations as being “perhaps the single most successful international environmental agreement to date" and went on to become the first treaty in the history of the United Nations to be universally ratified in 2008 by 197 countries.

K. Madhava Sarma was born in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh State on July 8, 1938. He was the fourth of nine siblings and his father was a mathematics teacher. After his schooling in Vijayawada he graduated from the Mathematics Honours program at Andhra University in Vishakapatnam in 1957 with a BSc and MSc in Mathematics. He then studied at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Kolkata and graduated with an MSc. in Planning and Econometrics in 1959.