Wednesday, 30 September 2009, 1-3pm, Peacock Theatre, LSE
Keynote: R K Pachauri, Chair, IPCC & Director General, TERI
Panellists: Naina Lal Kidwai, Group General Manager and Country Head, HSBC India; Urjit Patel, President (Business Development) Reliance Industries Limited, Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; Minouche Shafik, Permanent Sec, DFID
Chair : Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Professor & Director India Observatory, LSE
India is the world's fifth largest emitter of CO2, after China, the USA, the EU and Russia. But in relative terms, India is a low carbon economy, with per capita emissions about a quarter of the global average. In spite of projected growth in emissions, these are likely to remain below the developed country average.
India is also one of the countries most exposed to the projected impacts of climate change, particularly on food production, water availability and coastal cities. Already 2.6% of GDP is spent each year on adapting to climate change. Compared with the industrialised world, India has a 'wider spectrum of choices' as it confronts the global threat of climate change, with a large potential for technological developments.
This event brings together experts to discuss the Business and Policy initiatives in India on Climate Change.
The event was approximately 95 minutes. It is available as a .mp3 podcast| or online video|.
Biographies
Dr RK Pachauri is Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and Chancellor of TERI University. He serves as Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 2002. IPCC along with former Vice President Al Gore has been awarded the "Nobel Peace Prize" for the year 2007. Dr. Pachauri represented the IPCC at the awards ceremony on 10th December 2007.
To acknowledge his immense contributions to the field of environment, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award, in 2008.
He was also bestowed the "Officier De La Légion D'Honneur" by the Government of France in 2006.
He has been appointed as Director, Yale Climate and Energy Institute from July 2009.
He is also the chairman of the board of Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society. He has been active in several international forums dealing with the subject of climate change and its policy dimensions.
Naina Lal Kidwai is Group General Manager and Country Head of HSBC in India. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School, she has been recognised in India and abroad with several awards and listings for leadership and business. Repeatedly ranked in the Fortune global list of Top Women in Business, 12th in the Wall Street Journal 2006 Global Listing of Women to Watch and listed by Time Magazine as one of their 15 Global Influential 2002. She received the Padma Shri from the Government of India for her contribution to Trade and Industry.
Urjit R. Patel has been with Reliance Industries Limited since 2007; he is also a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. Prior to this, he spent a decade working in the Indian financial sector specialising in funding private infrastructure projects. He has also worked at the International Monetary Fund and as an adviser to both the Reserve Bank of India and the Ministry of Finance in New Delhi. His current research interests include Indian macroeconomics, energy and climate change mitigation.
Minouche Shafik joined DFID in November 2004, as Director General Country Programmes, with responsibility for all of DFID's country programmes in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. She previously served as Vice President, Private Sector and Infrastructure at the World Bank. She also chaired several international consultative groups that support microfinance, energy, water and sanitation for the poor, urban development and slum upgrading, information technologies for development, and private participation in infrastructure.
Nick Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government and Director, India Observatory at the LSE. He is also Chairman of Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change.
Professor Lord Stern was adviser to the UK Government on the Economics of Climate Change and Development from 2005-2007, and Head of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. He was also Head of the Government Economic Service, 2003-2007; Second Permanent Secretary to Her Majesty's Treasury, 2003-2005; and Director of Policy and Research for the Prime Minister's Commission for Africa, 2004-2005. He was Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank from 2000-2003.