5th Annual Roundtable Consultation

27 February, 2022

From upper left clockwise: Hon. Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways gives Inaugural Address; Hon. Matthew J Nolan, Treasurer, AirQualityAsia; Mr. Sunjoy Joshi, Chairman, Observer Research Foundation; Hon. Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MP, Board member, AirQualityAsia

5th Annual Roundtable Consultation | Addressing India's Air Pollution Challenge
26-27 February 2022
Hosts: AirQualityAsia and the Observer Research Foundation
Location: Webinar, Delhi, India

February 26-27, 2022 AirQualityAsia in collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation organized the Annual Round Table Consultation – fifth in a series started in 2017 at the initiative of Hon. Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MP, Board Member, AirQualityAsia. The deliberations in this 5th edition focused on key narratives within this pressing development challenge, including Financing the Transition to Green Economy, Transition to Renewable Energy, Transition to Clean Air Transportation System, Inter-State Coordination for Air Quality Management.

The webinar was inaugurated on February 26, 2022 by Hon. Nitin Gadkari, Hon. Minister for Road Transport and Highways. Hon. Matthew J Nolan, Treasurer, AirQualityAsia, Mr. Sunjoy Joshi, Chairman, Observer Research Foundation, Hon. Dr. Shashi Tharoor, MP, Board member, AirQualityAsia gave a welcome note, followed by a conversation with Federal and state level stakeholders, Hon. Priyanka Chaturvedi, MP, Hon. Amar Patnaik, MP, Hon. Rajiv Pratap Rudy, MP moderated by Hon. Tharoor.

Ms. Shazia Z Rafi, AQA President and Convenor welcomed the participants and speakers on February 27, 2022 and presented on role of legislators in UN’s SDGs 2030 framework and implementation.

The first panel titled “Financing the Transition to Green Economy” was moderated by Dr. Nilanjan Ghosh, Director, Centre for New Economic Diplomacy and ORF’s Kolkata Centre, Observer Research Foundation. Technical presentations were made by Ms. Suranjali Tandon, Assistant Professor, NIPFP, Mr. Kushagra Srivastava, CEO, Chakr Innovation, Ms. Renita D Souza, Fellow at Observer Research Foundation.

The second panel titled “Transition to Renewable Energy” was opened by Hon. Satya Yudha Widya, Member, National Energy Council, founder, Green Economy Caucus, Indonesia, Sr. Advisor, AQA. Experts included Ms. Sandhya Sundararagavan, Lead-Energy Transitions, World Resources Institute, India, Ms. Vibhuti Garg, Energy Economist, Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), Ms. Disha Agarwal, Programme Lead, Renewables, CEEW. The panel was moderated by Dr. Shailly Kedia, Associate Director, Sustainable Development and Outreach, TERI.

The third panel on Transition to Clean Air Transportation System was moderated by Ms. Aishwarya Raman, Director and Head of Research, Ola Mobility Institute. Dr. Anup Bandivadekar, Environment Program Officer, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Mr. Promit Mookherjee, Associate Fellow, Centre for Economy and Growth, ORF gave expert presentations.

The fourth panel titled “Inter-State Coordination for Air Quality Management” was moderated by Ms. Tanushree Ganguly, Programme Lead (Air Quality), CEEW. Panelists included Mr. Abhishek Kumar, Co-Founder, INDICC Associates, Ms. Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment, India, Dr. Mohammad Jawed, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Kishanganj (Bihar), Ms. Reena Gupta, Advisor, Government of Delhi.

Mr. Sumant Sinha, CEO, ReNew Power gave Keynote Address. Concluding Remarks were presented by Ms. Aparna Roy, Associate Fellow and Lead, Climate Change and Energy,ORF and Hon. Harry Duynhoven, Secretary, AirQualityAsia.