The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) hosted the launch of the report Tracks to Transition: India’s Global Climate Strategy, co-edited by Constantino Xavier, Fellow, CSEP and Karthik Nachiappan, Research Fellow, National University of Singapore and Non-Resident Fellow, CSEP. The launch was held on Thursday, October 19, 2023 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm at Silver Oak Hall, India Habitat Centre. The launch featured opening remarks by Ajay Mathur, Director General, International Solar Alliance (ISA).

The launch of the report was followed by a panel discussion with Shyam Saran, former Foreign Secretary of India and former Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Climate Change; Navroz Dubash, Professor, Centre for Policy Research; Dhanasree Jayaram, Assistant Professor, Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal University; and Adriana Abdenur, Special Advisor in the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil . Constantino Xavier moderated the session.

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About the event

A changing geopolitical context is affecting global climate governance. Increasingly less centred on the UNFCCC, India’s climate diplomacy has responded by joining, engaging, and establishing new mechanisms to negotiate its pathway towards a low-carbon economy. Featuring seven case studies by Indian and international experts, the report covers how India practices climate diplomacy across multilateral, minilateral, trilateral, and bilateral frameworks.

Welcome Remarks

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.

Opening Remarks

Ajay Mathur is the Director General of the International Solar Alliance (ISA). The ISA is a treaty based inter-governmental organisation with 116 member countries, which aims to make solar as the energy-of-choice in its member countries. He has spearheaded the implementation of solar energy projects and capacity building projects in many developing countries, and of the publication of annual progress reports on solar technology, markets and investments. Recently, the ISA has embarked on the creation of a Solar Facility to mitigate the risks associated with solar investments in African Countries, and launched a programme to identify and strengthen solar startups in that continent.

Prior to joining ISA, he was Director General of the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and a member of the Prime Minister of India’s Council on Climate Change. He was co-chair of the global Energy Transitions Commission and the Clean Cooling Initiatives of the One Planet Summit. He earlier headed the Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency and was responsible for its foundational programmes, which mainstreamed energy efficiency through initiatives such as the Star Labeling program for appliances, the Energy Conservation Building Code, and the Perform, Achieve & Trade program for energy-intensive industries. He was a leading climate change negotiator and was the Indian spokesperson at the Paris climate negotiations. He served as the interim Director of the Green Climate Fund during its foundational period.

He was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He was appointed a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Merite by the President of France in recognition of his outstanding commitment to preserving the environment and coping with energy-related challenges. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the (then) University of Roorkee and a Master’s and PhD degrees from the University of Illinois. He has also received the Distinguished Alumnus Awards from both his alma maters.

Panelists

• Shyam Saran is a former Foreign Secretary of India and has served as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Nuclear Affairs and Climate Change. After leaving government service in 2010, he has headed the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, a prestigious think tank focusing on economic issues (2011-2017) and was Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board under the National Security Council from 2013 to 2015. Shyam Saran is currently the President of the India International Centre and an Honorary Senior Fellow with the Centre for Policy Research. His book, “How India Sees the World” was published in September 2017. He has now published his second book, “How China Sees India and the World.”On January 26, 2011, Shyam Saran was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India for his contribution to Civil Service. The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest national award in the country. The Emperor of Japan decorated him with the Spring Order, Gold and Silver Star on July 30, 2019, for his services to promoting India-Japan Relations.
• Navroz Dubash is a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based think tank and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS. He has been actively engaging in global and national debates on climate change, air quality, energy and water as a researcher, policy advisor and activist for over 25 years. He helped establish the global Climate Action Network as its first international coordinator from 1990 to 1992.Navroz was a Coordinating Lead Author for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a Lead Author and Synthesis Report Author for the Fifty Assessment Report, serves on the steering committee for the UNEP Emissions Gap Report, and has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the UN Climate Action Summit.He has advised Indian government policymaking on climate change, energy, and air and water policy over the last decade, including coordinating a team to anchor India’s Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategy.He is an associate editor and, as of January 2022, the incoming Co-editor-in-chief of Climate Policy Journal, and a member of the editorial boards of Global Environmental Politics, Energy Research in Social Science, Environmental Policy and Governance, and the Journal of Environment and Development. He has written widely on climate change, energy and the environment, most recently, editing India in a Warming World: Integrating Climate Change and Development with Oxford University Press. In 2015 he was conferred the T N Khoshoo Memorial Award for his work on Indian climate change policy and the international discourse on global climate governance, and in 2018 his co-authored paper on interpreting model scenarios was awarded the Emerging Nations Award by Environmental Research Letters.
• Dhanasree Jayaram is an Assistant Professor, Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, and Co-coordinator, Centre for Climate Studies, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Karnataka, India. She is also a Research Fellow, Earth System Governance; Member, Climate Security Expert Network; Research Fellow, Centre for Public Policy Research (Kochi, India); Non-resident Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs (Helsinki, Finland); and Member, Planet Politics Institute. She holds a PhD in Geopolitics and International Relations from MAHE. She was a Research Fellow at the Centre Marc Bloch (CMB) and Guest Researcher at Freie Universität Berlin – under the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s International Climate Protection Fellowship during March 2022- August 2023. She also pursued a visiting fellowship (Erasmus Mundus – short-term PhD) at Leiden University, the Netherlands during 2014-15; and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, under the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship during 2018-19. Her primary fields of interest include environmental and climate security, climate diplomacy of emerging economies, regional environmental policy in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific, gender and climate governance, and environmental peacebuilding.
• Adriana Abdenur is a Brazilian policymaker and scholar, and co-founder of Plataforma CIPÓ, a think tank headquartered in Rio de Janeiro and focused on international affairs and climate change. She has a Ph.D. in sociology of development from Princeton University and has published widely on global governance and emerging powers. She is currently serving in the federal government in Brasília as Special Advisor in the Presidency.

Moderator

Constantino Xavier is a Fellow in Foreign Policy and Security Studies at CSEP, where he leads the Sambandh Initiative on Regional Connectivity. He is also a Non- Resident Fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, in Washington DC. His research focus on India’s changing role as a regional power, and the challenges of security, connectivity and democracy across South Asia and the Indian Ocean.

Please contact MAhuja@csep.org for general queries and twahengbam@csep.org 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.

Media

‘Climate Change Is Now A Political Game’ – StratNews Global

India’s climate diplomacy moved from ‘can’t say yes’ to ‘can’t say no’ in a decade – The Print