Headline: Public Seminar with Jairam Ramesh: India as an Evolving Actor in International Climate and Energy Policy

India represents the second most populous country in the world, poised to overtake China in the near future. With the recent signs of economic fragility in China, India has also attracted renewed attention for its stable economic growth path, dependent mainly on domestic demand rather than the volatilities of global markets. These issues make India not only an increasingly important actor in international fora, like the UNFCCC or the G20. It is also becoming a significant reference point for other developing and emerging economies that are seeking to meet the challenges of socio-economic development while addressing global environmental challenges. This is further underlined by India’s increasing ambition in the deployment of renewable energy, having recently increased its medium-term target for solar energy deployment to 100GW.

At this upcoming event, we want to discuss India’s evolving climate and energy policies and its unique role in ongoing international processes, like the UNFCCC negotiations or the SDG process, with Jairam Ramesh, Distinguished IASS Fellow and former Minister of Environment as well as Rural Development in India.

Guiding questions for the discussion will be:

• What is needed to enable an acceleration of RE deployment in India? What role will / should India have in a global transition to sustainable energy? Can it be an example for other developing countries?
• What relevance do the SDGs have for India? What role may the implementation of the SDGs play for India?
• From an Indian perspective, what is needed for the climate negotiations to be successful? What role will Workstream II play for India? What is India’s approach likely to look like?

Date and time: 28 September 2015, 9:30-11 a.m.

Location: Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Berliner Str. 130, 14467 Potsdam

Please register here.