Business and Climate Summit 2017 – India

Laurence Tubiana visited India in early September 2017 to attend the Business and Climate Summit and hold meetings to discuss the possibility for India to engage with the 2050 Pathways Platform.

Laurence Tubiana visited India in early September 2017 to attend the Business and Climate Summit and hold meetings to discuss the possibility for India to engage with the 2050 Pathways Platform.

Laurence met with key India officials including the then Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu as well as officials from Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. She also held meetings with officials from Ministry of Finance to discuss how India’s financial sector is getting ready to deal with climate change. The Indian government responded with a lot of openness to engage with the Platform as well as develop their long-term strategy.

The government of India is already taking steps in the right direction to increase its ambition beyond its current nationally determined contribution. The government is in the process of developing its 2030 vision for a new India. Along with this, the government has commissioned a study to project emissions concomitant with economic growth for a period of 2030-45.

On September 1, the Platform hosted a roundtable discussion at the French Embassy titled “Long Term Planning For Action on Climate Change in India”. Co-chaired by Ms. Brune Poirson (Secretary of State to the Minister of Ecological and Solidary Transition) and Laurence Tubiana, it brought together think tanks, philanthropies, and representatives from business and local governments with a role or interest in long-term planning. Covered topics included: ways through which these interlocutors could benefit from the platform; key areas where peer-to-peer exchanges with members and partners of the Platform would be beneficial; barriers like lack of finance to carry out implementation of the plans; and the need to deliberate choices illustrated by modelling and engage stakeholders. The meeting concluded with idea of the 2050 Pathways Platform engaging different think tanks on key elements of a long-term pathway for India.