TERI-IGES Policy Research Dialogue
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), in collaboration with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan, hosted a day-long Policy Research Dialogue on Climate Change at TERI premises on 26 February 2013. It was the eighth consecutive dialogue that the two institutes have been organizing every year with an aim to assess the progress in climate negotiations and future directions for research. The dialogue focused on two broad themes: (a) outcome and implications of the 18th Conference of Parties held in Doha in 2012 and (b) future of technology transfer through various mechanisms. The dialogue began with Dr Arabinda Mishra (Director, Earth Sciences and Climate Change Division, TERI), welcoming the participants and Prof. Hironori Hamanaka (Chair of the Board of Directors, IGES), giving a historical overview of the dialogue series and expectations from the day's proceedings.
The first session, 'Future Climate Regime after 2020' with Prof. Hamanak in Chair, took stock of the evolution of climate change negotiations (Dr Kentaro Tamura, IGES) and explored the conceptual challenges regarding application of the Principles of the Convention in drafting a post-2020 climate regime (Neha Pahuja, TERI), ensuring equitable access to sustainable development (Manish Shrivastava, TERI), and mobilizing and delivering financial support to developing countries according to the principles of the Convention (Rajasree Ray, Ministry of Finance). Reflecting on the presentations, Amb. C Dasgupta (Distinguished Fellow, TERI) pointed out that in order to accommodate the arguments of 'changed circumstances' and principles of the Convention, particularly equity, CBDR and respective capability, it is of utmost importance to come up with objective criteria according to which countries, as and when they meet those criteria, graduate to the Annex-I category. He also pointed out that the implications of newly found shell gas reserves in the US need to be explored further.
The second session, with Mr Girish Sethi (Director, Industrial Energy Efficiency Division, TERI) in Chair, focused on the issue of 'Technology Transfer' with reference to different mechanisms. The session began with giving an overview of evolution and status of technology-related issues in negotiations (Akiko Urakami, Ministry of Environment, Japan) and the recently launched UNEP-led Climate Technology Centre and Network (Sahil Malhotra, TERI). Prof. Shobhakar Dhakal (Asian Institute of Technology), building on the vast research literature on technological change spelled out a range of issues that any mechanism would need to address in order to be successfully promoting technology transfer. The potential and challenges of delivering on technology transfer with reference to the Japanese proposal of bilateral offset mechanism (BOCM) and nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs) were elaborated upon by Akira Nitta (Ministry of Environment, Japan) and Prabhat Upadhyaya (Centre for Policy Research), respectively. Mr Shiga Yuki (IGES) presented the experience with implementing the ALCT project (Jointly implemented by TERI and IGES). Reflecting on the presentations Mr Sanjay Garg (Director, Ministry of Power, India) pointed out that the real issue is not just technology transfer but that of technology development and transfer, allowing developing countries to manufacture those technologies. He appreciated the joint work by TERI-IGES on ALCT project and suggested that such collaborations are the way forward. Neha Pahuja (Area Convenor, Centre for Global Environment Research) gave a vote of thanks.