Since that initial meeting, U.S. and Indian cooperation on climate change and clean energy have made significant progress - in key part because of Minister Jairam Ramesh. This week, Jayanti Natarajan replaced Minister Ramesh as the new environment minister. Minister Natarajan is now left with an immense opportunity to advance progress on critical issues in India's rapid economic development - environment and climate change - catalyzed by Minister Ramesh.
Minister Ramesh redefined climate change and environmental policy both domestically in India and internationally. Central to the shift was India's 2009 announcement of intensity targets prior to the Copenhagen discussions, allowing India to be, in Minister Ramesh's word a “deal-maker, not a deal-breaker." Minister Ramesh was also instrumental in India's emergence as an environmental leader, including the formation of the BASIC group with Brazil, South Africa, India and China. At Cancun, India bridged developed and developing nations towards agreement on greater transparency surrounding their emissions and actions to address global warming.
Minister Ramesh also leaves a legacy of making environmental protection a major part of India's development dialogue. For example, considering farmers and science, Minister Ramesh led the Ministry of Environment and Forests to deny cart-blanch to for genetically-modified seed experimentation to major international conglomerates like Monsanto in early 2010. Ramesh designated “Go-No-Go" zones for coal mining. Again in a bold move, Minister Ramesh stopped Vedanta's massive mining project in Niyamgiri. While clearly much more needs to be done to protect India's air, water, and forests, Ramesh took environmental review to a new level by halting 64 major projects and re-reviewing 469 projects. Ramesh also established the National Green Tribunal to further involve stakeholder discussions in environmental development. He also focused on science at the Ministry by creating an Indian Network for Comprehensive Climate Change Assessment with over 120 research institutes that publish regular reports on the climate change. Read the full report here.
Source: Anjali Jaiswal's Blog, Switch Board, NRDC.
