The Adventures of the Little Indian Girl

In July I attended a seminar where Dr. R. K. Pachauri spoke about Climate Change. It was a real wonderful honour to meet him!
 

photo by/credit: Anne McDonough 

At a time when everyone is talking about Environment, Health, Safety, Climate Change, Responsible Care, Energy Crisis, Economic Meltdown, Sustainability, etc, at a recent sustainability seminar here in DCthat I attended had a talk by Dr.R.K.Pachauri on “Status of Global Climatic Change Negotiations".

The audience included CEOs of MNCs, members of the US Department of State, non-profit/NGOs, members of the Congress and media. His talk could not have come at a better time with the US Congress debating the Climate Bill, the just completed G8 summit, the G20 and the Copenhagen meet coming up, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's India visit!

Honours sit lightly on Dr Pachauri who is the co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace. He also serves as the Director-General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi, India and has recently been appointed to lead the newly established Yale Climate and Energy Institute. A scientist first, he radiates great humility and has the patience to hear out diverse opinions and the capacity to listen without throwing judgements - qualities which make him the ideal candidate for being the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change.

His talk was insightful, the questions from the audience interesting, and his response even more informative that the two hours just wasn't enough to cover the many topics and ideas people had.

( Summary/Highlights from the talk )