Adopt A Negotiator » India
Adopt A Negotiator » India
Adopt A Negotiator » India
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- Profile Interview: Dr Prodipto Ghosh – AWG KP negotiator India
- Profile Interview: R K Sethi – Key official, Indian Delegation
- India says “yes” to nuclear CDM: Indian to Global Perspective- Mr R K Sethi
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Profile Interview: Dr Prodipto Ghosh – AWG KP negotiator India Posted: 08 Jun 2009 02:00 AM PDT  Dr Prodipto Ghosh Interview in the lobby The aim of interviewing our lead negotiators is that we get to know our negotiators better, understand the cultural, religious, academic and regional diversity within our delegation. I also believe that building a personal relationship with each negotiator interview aids in our tracking process as well as gives us an idea on the principles and working philosophies of our delegation. Sometimes this gives us hints to our possible political strategy. Academic Profile PHD in Economics specialising in Climate Change Modelling from Pittsburgh University USA, Btech – Bachelors of Technology in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi and a grilling school life in DPS Mathura Road, Delhi. He has been lauded with Alumni Achievement Awards from both IIT Delhi and Pitts burg University. Countries visited / Country liked He is very fond of Vietnam and likes the spirit of the people.Even after all that has taken place , the disturbed history hasn’t affected their spirit. Wherein are you from in India/Ancestral legacy Born in Calcutta and have lived in Delhi from 50 years. Family Background Father was a scientist and he’s married with two boys . His wife is a retired government servant and is the Delhi government Chair of the Public Grievances Committee. His elder son is 33 years old based in Singapore and is in the financial sector whereas the younger son is a freshman in the same university of Pittsburgh where he studied. Hobbies/Interest Reading and watching movies with a historical setting. Favourite movie is Indosheen a french movie which he believes is based on the life of former vietnamese prime minister. He was a fast bowler when in college and represented the Moss0uiri Academy. He is more of a test cricket person and does not enjoy the T20 form of cricket at all. Traits Ghosh Sir blatantly admits that he has no positive traits. He finds it very difficult to accept what people are at face value. Disapproves of hypocrisy and feels he is absolutely homourless( which I beieve is the darkest form of Humor I have witnessed latest) Experience in this field/passion/special story Academically been involved for a long time. He has been an observer for the Asian Development Bank for 7 years and with TERI as 4 years. And since 2001 hes been a part of the government delegation till date. He is passionate about JUSTICE and highly dislikes any form of injustice.       |
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Profile Interview: R K Sethi – Key official, Indian Delegation Posted: 07 Jun 2009 02:50 PM PDT Mr. R. K. Sethi  R K Sethi Interview Profile Member Secretary, The National CDM Authority -Designated National Authority (DNA); Ministry of Environment and Forests; Chairman, CDM Executive Board, UNFCCC Secretariat The aim of profiling our negotiators is getting to know them at a personal level and hence understanding how they make decisions. Some really interesting insights and dimensions of our negotiators ‘ personalities. Academic Profile A bachelors degree in electrical engineering and a Masters in Technology in Energy Studies from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi and then continued to a complete an MBA degree. Countries visited /liked most Visited a lot of countries but like Germany the most. Indian Routes Have lived in Delhi for most of his life but ancestrally grandparents were on the Lahore side of India before partition Family Background Father was in the Indian Army and had a wife and a son Hobbies/Interests Philately – as in the study of stamps and also the collection, reading and playing Table Tennis Traits Refused to tell us his traits and was very modest saying that we should consult others to get an opinion about the positive and negative traits of his . Experience in this field Was involved from 2002 where he was the chief organizer of the COP8 - Eighth Conference of Parties under UNFCCC in New Delhi. In charge of Climate Change and CDM setting up in 2001 and then the establishment of the Designated National Authority (DNA) . This took around 5 to 6 months and a lot of bureaucratic efforts. After which he is member secretary of the DNA now. At the International level he has been the Vice Chair of the Executive Board of the CDM under UNFCCC where now he is the Chairman. Passion/what drives him to make a change?/inspiration/special stories Mr Sethi believes in reforming the sytem and making it more public friendly . He wants to make a DNA website of India and in the course of the next 3-4 months make the DNA office perfectly paperless and have no hard copies existing or to be printed.       |
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India says “yes” to nuclear CDM: Indian to Global Perspective- Mr R K Sethi Posted: 07 Jun 2009 01:18 PM PDT Mr. R. K. Sethi, Member Secretary, The National Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Authority, Designated National Authority (DNA), Ministry of Environment and Forests had a meeting with an elite group of NGO officials from EDF to Greenpeace Germany to CAN and carbon services international. There I was sitting as a youth representative who was expected to know nothing about CDM, but I guess all of us present were pleasantly surprised. Just to reiterate my point, Global youth is as much on track if not more than all the other stakeholders in the secretariat. India’s stance and status of CDM Since 2003, we have been the most efficient in the world where it takes only 8 weeks for host country approval.Apart from the DNA working for sustainable development in the projects and does not act as a DOE. Unlike other countries we have local bodies like Pollution Control Boards, Jal Boards(Water board) who have to monit or locally before sending it for host country approval. Its a “no quota” regulation which is as minimum as possible. India is currently looking to give a big push to POA- program of activities under which it has just approved a big CFL lighting project across many rural villages in India. In relations to the New Zealand proposition of linking the NAMA to CDM , they said it opens all together a new dimension and India will brainstorm on it in the coming future. He also believes that India need to have flexibility built into the system. One of the most critical positions that came through the meeting was that India is in favour of Nuclear to be integrated into the CDM. The reasoning says that we are using our renewable forms of energy to the maximum like hydro power which is only able to cater to 25 % of power demand but where will all the other energy come from? Since I mega watt of nuclear energy could cover more if not equal amount of 1 mega watt from coal.”India is a very responsible country” and will use nuclear energy sensibly which it has proved in the past with its nuclear tests. However India is not competent to comment on the responsibility of other countries in this respect. Another hurdle is coverage of local costs of participation of CDM projects to which Mr Sethi had the opinion that the Government cannot come into the business of local participation but can help in capacity building and hands on training. Last year in the Poznan Negotiations Dr Prodipto Ghos h had vouched for Indian specific benchmarks, but he disagreed saying that the other countries would never agree to country specific benchmarks. But the grid coefficient emissions system of electricity in India could be remodelled across the world. International Level Status On the international level , Mr Sethi has been the Chairing the CDM EB – executive board and when asked about teh functioning of the EB is being strengthened by capacity building and RITs . Whereas as far as sectoral approaches are concerned it is believed that they should be bottom up approach rather than the top to bottom approach which will face huge resistance since countries would not want to be dominated by any other organization. When asked whether there is any future for MRV support for NAMAs he said that if CDM is linked to NAMAs, it would be the most rigorous MRV of its kind. A big concern of CDM is its unpredictability which has to be resolved through increasing flexibility in the system.
In the global perspective , he is not in favour if the co-benefits and exceptions from additionality for stakeholders which might need local cost assistance for participation. MY TAKE on CDM In my opinion, India is doing very well in CDM and I hope it continues to do so. I feel we need to resolve the accounting issue of CER revenue and decide whether it is a good or service so that participants are taxed fairly and tax of 33 % doesn’t act as a disincentive. I also think India needs to rethink its position on Nuclear CDM , as Nuclear is an issue by itself. Also, having the government of India as the DNA makes the process highly bureaucratic and has various loopholes and power struggles at every level . Maybe India could have a DOE of its own which will speedup the process of validation and also the clubbing of SMEs with POA projects would benefit the POA methodology and strengthen local participation. India currently holds 32% of market share of CDM in the world with the largest number of projects in the pipeline. We can only wish for a speedy validation to see India overtake China as the most approved projects in CDM.       |
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Adopt A Negotiator » India
Adopt A Negotiator » India
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Posted: 12 Jun 2009 02:23 AM PDT International negotiations never look like what they are. Amidst all the buzz and media coverage who takes the real decisions? Who calls the shots? Whose voice is heard? and whose voice is heard and forgotten? and how many are deaf? The International potical governance is set up in a top- bottom approach. Countries send a delegation of around anywhere around 2 to 17 memeber delegates who are known as ‘parties’. It was only in the Johannesburg conference in 1992 that the concept of sustanaible development was constituted and in 1995 was it decided that COP- Conference of parties will involve the participation of local bodies, NGOs etc as “OBSERVER” organisations.Slowly these observer organisations got expanded to environmental NGO’s- ENGOs and RINGOs and BINGOs which are research NGOs and Business NGOs respectively. To make sure our voices are heard, The UNFCCC Secretariat gives the whole NGO community exactly 1 whole min. WOW ! a whole minute to stuff in propositions which have all the world’s NGO submissions! If it wasn’t enough, I have personally witnessed a lot of Parties sleeping during this one minute or laughing, or mocking or basically turning a deaf ear! So what are we here for ? We are here to make sure that our country delegations don’t take the worst possible stance in the negotiations. We are hear to build pressure. Whether they succumb to pressure or not is clearly dependent on the nature of delegation they are. Usually the global south country delegations are easily approachable and are very cooperative but the Northern delegations don’t really care much. Even within delegations politics goes on and sometimes being in a a party doesn’t assure you a voice! So why am I still here trying to do something? Maybe it makes sure that what I witness here is communicated to all of you! so keep reading, so and carry the message forward. |
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