Meeting with the Clean Air Fund and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and Air Quality Asia

Attendance; Dr. Shashi Tharoor MP, Ms. Jane Burston, (CAF) Mr. Matt Whitney, (CAF) Ms. Rebecca Brookes, (CIFF) Mr. Shirish Sinha, (CIFF) Mr. John Koshy

Report by Matthew J. Nolan, Treasurer and Board Member

The purpose of this meeting was to present to the representatives of CAF and CIFF the work which has been carried out to date by AQA in the area of parliamentary advocacy and the significant efforts to date in convening Parliamentary Round-Table meetings on air quality in India. Dr. Shashi Tharoor outlined his work with the Ministry for the Environment in having a Clean Air Plan adopted by the Minister and his hope that the recently published Clean Air Programme will be acted upon by the new government after Mays general election. He highlighted the importance of the last two round-table meetings which took place in New Delhi which included stakeholders including parliamentarians. He concluded his remarks by saying he would like to arrange another discussion in the same format in July next.

I gave an overview of AQA’s work in the area of clean air to date. I thanked Dr. Tharoor for his invaluable assistance and confirmed that the organisation would be glad to give whatever assistance is required in arranging a 2019 round-table. On behalf of AQA I wished Dr. Tharoor well in his campaign for relection.

Jane Burston enquired as to whether air quality would be on the agenda as an election issue. Dr. Tharoor said in reply that he was confident that air quality would, for the first time, appear as an item in his party’s election manifesto.

John Koshy outlined to the meeting the importance of having strong advocates on air quality in parliament and that on many occasions’ interventions at parliamentary level is purely on a local constituency basis and we must endeavour to broaden this and have air quality as an issue for debate.

Overall I was pleased with the meeting and CAF and CIFF expressed an interest in supporting the advocacy work being carried out by AQA in India, particularly in assisting in the continuing Round-Table series. Air Quality Asia to follow up with CIFF and CAF and I would advise that John Koshy could assist in this regard.

On the conclusion of the meeting I had the opportunity to have a one on one conversation with Jane Burston, who has just taken up role as manager director with the Clean Air Fund. She was taken with the meeting and the discussion and I filled her in on some other details she wished to familiarise herself with. She has significant funds at her disposal and I believe that further negotations should take place with her in regard to future funding of projects for AQA. I believe she is well disposed to assisting us in our work.

On the 14 February I attended the Clean Air Platform on ‘Aligning Solutions on Air Pollution in India’ part of which dealt with providing information to foundations to assist them prioritise work and identify pilot projects that can be scaled up. There were a large number of foundations represented at this meeting including:

• Vasudha Foundation,

• Public Health Foundation India,

• Lung Care Foundation,

• Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation,

• Clean Air Fund,

• Children’s Investment Fund Foundation,

• Pisces Foundation,

• Oak Foundation,

• Ikea Foundation,

• Growald Foundation,

• Bloomberg Philanthropies,

• Central Square Foundation,

I availed of this meeting to outline the work which AQA has carried out to date and our plans for the remainder of this year. I had meetings with representatives from Bloomberg and again with CAF and CIFF. I had a conversation with Vikas Mehta who apologised for the delay in transferring funds to AQA and said this was due to a staffing problems but he promised the transfer would take place within two days.

My overall conclusions are that this was a worthwhile exercise with the organisation’s work being highlighted. I believe there is scope for new funding from the Clean Air Fund. Dr. Shashi Tharoor's work on AQA’s behalf in India is to be commended and he is highly regarded both inside and outside of Parliament.

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