The Centre for Social and Economic Progress hosted a Seminar to discuss the ADB Report on Asia in the Global Transition to Net Zero on Tuesday, September 05, 2023, 04:00 pm – 06:00 pm IST. Attendees joined in-person at the CSEP Auditorium (6 Jose P Rizal Marg, 2nd Floor, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021) and online via Zoom. The seminar was also streamed live on YouTube.

About the event:

Asia in the Global Transition to Net Zero explores what a global net-zero transition could mean for developing Asia. It models emission pathways based on commitments and pledges under the Paris Agreement and compares them with more optimal routes to net-zero. The pathways considered will require dramatic transformations in energy and land use, with wide ranging implications.

The report finds that early action and international coordination are critical to ensure a low-cost and equitable net-zero transition. With efficient policies, the benefits of the transition from averted climate damages and improved air quality could outweigh climate mitigation costs by five times. Conversely, if policies are not carefully designed, some economies, industries, communities, and populations could be adversely affected. Yet, failure to address the climate crisis would have consequences that would be even more regressive. To avoid these outcomes, deep decarbonisation is needed.

Presenters

Manisha Pradhananga is an economist at the Economic Research and Development Impact Department of the Asian Development Bank. Her research focuses on energy and climate change issues. Prior to ADB, she was the Assistant Professor of Economics at Knox College, USA. She has a PhD in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College, USA.

Lei Lei Song is currently the Director of Economic Analysis and Operations Support Division of the Economic Research and Development Impact Department at the Asian Development Bank. He leads a team of more than 20 economists supporting ADB operations and conducting research on development issues in Asia and the Pacific and analytical work on project economic analysis and impact evaluation. He joined ADB in 2007 as an economist in the former Office of Regional Economic Integration. He moved to the Office of the President as a Senior Advisor to ADB President in May 2014. From April 2018 to July 2021, he was Regional Economic Advisor for South Asia based in New Delhi, covering Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka

Sabah S Abdullah is an economist who specialises in evaluating and assessing the economic value and impact of energy, climate change, and environmental issues in developing economies. Currently, her main focus is on conducting economic analysis and measuring the impact specifically for climate change projects at the ADB. She previously worked at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Washington DC, where she focused on improving tools and techniques for quantifying and rating the World Bank’s private sector investments in infrastructure, gender, and climate change projects in African and Asian countries. Before that, she was a lecturer at the University of Queensland in Australia, a Marie Curie Fellow at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) in Italy, and a post-doctoral Fellow at the University of the Basque Country.

Panelists

Montek Singh Ahluwalia is a Distinguished Fellow at CSEP and has been a notable figure in Indian economic reforms from the early 1980s onwards. He has previously served as the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India, Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, and as the first director of the Independent Evaluation Office of the IMF. He has written extensively on various aspects of development economics and is a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award for public service.

Indu K Murthy heads Climate, Environment and Sustainability, at CSTEP. She has worked as a Consultant Scientist at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Her areas of interest include climate change vulnerability, land-based mitigation, and adaptation/resilience building or climate-proofing development to climate change.  She is an expert with the UNFCCC Roster of Experts for India (for GHG Inventory), and a member of the REDD+ Cell constituted by the Government of Karnataka.  She completed her PhD in Ecology and Environmental Sciences from Pondicherry University and has specialized in Forestry and Environment from M S University, Baroda.

Sudipto Mundle is Chairman of the Board of Centre for Development Studies, India, and serves on the boards of several other organisations. He is also Visiting Faculty at the Indian School of Public Policy, New Delhi, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). Formerly he was an Emeritus Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP). He was also a member of the Fourteenth Finance Commission, India, the erstwhile Monetary Policy Advisory Committee of the Reserve Bank of India and the National Statistical Commission, where he also acted as Chairman.

Moderator

Laveesh Bhandari is President and a Senior Fellow at CSEP. He has been leading climate change and sustainability research at CSEP, and has published widely on subjects related to sustainable livelihoods, industrial, economic and social reforms in India, economic geography and financial inclusion. He has taught economics at Boston University and IIT Delhi. He has been the managing editor of the Journal of Emerging Market Finance and worked at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi.

Please contact Manmeet Ahuja for general inquiries and Trishna Wahengbam for media inquiries.

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.