Dr. Ramanathan discovered the greenhouse effect of Choloro-fluoro-carbons in 1975. He predicted in 1980 that global warming would be detected by 2000. He led the Indian-Ocean-experiment that discovered the widespread Atmospheric Brown Clouds and the large warming effect of black carbon. He has made fundamental work on the atmospheric greenhouse effects of CO
2, water vapor, methane, ozone and HFCs as well as on the feedback effects involving sea ice, tropical clouds, and storm tracks. Using such empirical observations, he showed that mitigation of short-lived climate pollutants will slow down global warming by as much as 50% during the next few decades. In response, the United Nations has formed the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. He is now focusing on the plight of the bottom 3 billion people who will suffer the worst consequences of climate change and developed a new approach called as The Two Worlds Approach to provide clean/renewable energy access to the bottom 3 billion. One example is Project Surya which is mitigating black carbon and other climate warming emissions from solid biomass cooking in India.
He is now serving in Pope Francis’ Council for the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Through numerous meetings and summits he helped organize on behalf of Pope Francis at Vatican, an Alliance between Science, religion and policy is emerging with a potential for a transformative effect on the global efforts to slow down climate change.
He was honored as the 2013 Champion of Earth for Science and Innovation by the United Nations and named as the 2014 Global Thinker by the US Foreign Policy. He has been elected to the National Academy of Science, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical society and has won numerous other honors.