On 26 November 2019, the Initiative on Climate, Energy and Environment (ICEE) at the Centre for Policy Research, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) co-hosted a discussion on the linkages between climate change and development pathways.

The discussion, which engaged with the UN Environment Programme’s recently-released Emissions Gap Report 2019, was chaired by R R Rashmi (Distinguished Fellow and Programme Director, Earth Science and Climate Change, TERI). The panellists included Simon Maxwell (Development Economist, and Former Director, Overseas Development Institute), P. K Anand (Visiting Fellow, RIS), Sabyasachi Saha (Assistant Professor, RIS), and Navroz K. Dubash (Professor, CPR and Coordinator, ICEE).

Simon Maxwell’s presentation on the key takeaways from the UN Environment Programme’s Emissions Gap Report 2019 can be found here.

Navroz K. Dubash’s presentation on the implications of the report for India can be found here.

Part 1 of the complete video is given above. To watch the Q+A session following the event, click here.

About the Participants

Rajani Ranjan Rashmi is a Distinguished Fellow in The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). He is a senior member of Indian Administrative service and has been, for several years, India’s principal negotiator for climate change negotiations under the UN FCCC. He served the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Govt of India for almost 8 years before and after the Paris Agreement. He has thus been involved in the making of India’s policy on climate change. He retired last year as the Chief Secretary of Manipur. Besides his position in TERI, Mr Rashmi is also a member of the Technical Advisory Body of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and is associated with the Sub Committee of the Finance Ministry on Climate Finance.

Simon Maxwell is a development economist, with a career spanning fifty years. He worked for ten years overseas, in Kenya, India and Bolivia, for UNDP and the British aid programme, then for fifteen years at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. From 1997-2009, he was Director of the Overseas Development Institute, the UK’s leading independent think-tank on international development and humanitarian issues. He has recently been Executive Chair of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, Chair of the European Think Tanks Group, and a Specialist Adviser to the International Development Select Committee of the UK House of Commons. Simon is a past President of the Development Studies Association of the UK and Ireland. In 2007, he was awarded a CBE for services to international development. For further information, see www.simonmaxwell.eu.

P. K Anand is a full-time Visiting Fellow at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS). He was previously a Senior Consultant at NITI Aayog, working on the SDGs, Appraisal of the 12th Five-Year Plan etc. Before his retirement from the Indian Administrative Service, he served in the State Government of Rajasthan, and was Senior Adviser, Planning Commission of Government of India (GoI) heading Development Monitoring & Evaluation Organization, and handling work related to several Ministries. He holds M.Sc. in Physics and Economics (LSE), and a PhD in Economics.

Sabyasachi Saha is Assistant Professor at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi. He obtained his Ph.D., M.Phil. and M.A. in Economics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi at the Centre for International Trade and Development (CITD). As a Ph.D. scholar he received the WIPO Prize, DAAD funded junior fellowship for research in Germany, and Government of India Travel Award. Previously, he has worked with JNU and ICRIER as senior research staff. Recently, he contributed as a Member of T20 Japan Task Force on Trade, Investment, and Globalisation. His areas of expertise include innovation economics, technology, international trade, and industrial policy. In the context of the SDGs, he has extensively worked on STI; technology facilitation and transfer; industrial development; resource mobilisation and the role of the private sector.

Navroz K. Dubash is a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), and leads the CPR Initiative on Climate, Energy and Environment. He works on climate change policy and governance, the political economy of energy and air pollution, and the regulatory state in the developing world. Widely published in these areas, Navroz serves on Government of India advisory committees on climate change, energy and air pollution, and on the editorial boards of several international journals. He is currently a Coordinating Lead Author for the national policies and institutions chapter in the upcoming 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2015, he was conferred the 12th T. N. Khoshoo Memorial Award for his work on climate change policy.