Nobel Winning IPCC Chair Dr. Pachauri to Speak at LUMS
June 26, 2012
Date: June 26, 2012
Venue: Auditorium A-12, Main Academic Block, LUMS
Time: 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Guest Speakers:
Dr. Rajendra K Pachauri (Chairman, IPCC)
Hon’ble Mr. M. Shashidhar Reddy (Vice Chair, NDMA India)
Dr. Mihir Bhatt (Director, AIDMI)
Mr. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh (CEO, LEAD-Pakistan)
Dr. Adil Najam (Vice Chancellor, LUMS)
About the Event
The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in collaboration with LEAD invites you to an open lecture on Climate Change, as part of the IPCC SREX National Outreach Event – Pakistan. The lecture will revolve around the role of Climate Change in augmenting disasters, increasing vulnerability and exacerbating risk factors in Pakistan and the South Asian region. Collaborating partners for the IPCC SREX National Outreach Event – Pakistan, include National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
At LUMS the event is being organized as part of its SarSubz LUMS Initiative and its research efforts on Climate Change Adaptation in Pakistan.
The key speakers at this lecture will be Dr Rajendra K Pachauri – Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); Honorable Mr. M. Shashidhar Reddy - Vice Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority, India; Mr. Mihir Bhatt - IPCC S-REX coordinating Lead Author; Mr. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh – CEO, LEAD Pakistan; and Dr. Adil Najam – Vice Chancellor, LUMS.
The lecture aims to enhance the understanding, among academics, students and policy makers, of the impact of climate change and to contribute to the much needed mainstreaming of climate change discourse in Pakistan. Given the focus of the IPCC SREX report on extreme events, there will be particular emphasis on the relationship between climate change and natural disasters. The event also presents the opportunity to interact with some of the leading experts in the field who have received international acclaim for their work on climate change both in the South Asian and in the global context.
Faculty, researchers and students at LUMS are strongly encouraged to attend. For those interested please confirm participation at your earliest to:
Mr. Basharat Ahmed Saeed
Office of the Vice Chancellor
basharat.saeed@lums.edu.pk
Tel: +92 42 35608000 Ext: 2220
Guest Speaker Profiles
Dr Rajendra K Pachauri
Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Dr Pachauri has been with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) since 1982, when he joined as Director and was then redesignated as Director-General in April 2001. Since 1998, he has also been Chancellor, TERI University.
Under Dr Pachauri's leadership, TERI today has emerged as one of the few action-oriented interdisciplinary institutions in the world and one that firmly believes that its research and findings must result in implementation to improve the human condition. It has developed into a hands-on, solution-oriented change agent undertaking need-responsive research, opinion creation and capacity building.
Prominently known for his research on environmental issues, Dr Pachauri has received both national and international acclaim for his efforts in building awareness and understanding about man-made climate change including laying the foundation for measures required to adapt to and mitigate these changes and their policy dimensions.
In April 2002, Dr Pachauri was elected the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a position to which he was re-elected in September 2008. IPCC along with former Vice President Al Gore was awarded the “Nobel Peace Prize” for the year 2007.
He has been conferred with the “Padma Vibhushan”, second highest civilian award, for his services in the field of science and engineering in January 2008 by the President of India and received the 'Officier De La LégionD'Honneur' from the Government of France in 2006. He has also been conferred with ‘The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star' by His Majesty Akihito, Emperor of Japan, the ‘Commander of the Order of the White Rose of Finland' by the Prime Minister of Finland and the ‘Commander of the Order of Leopold II' by the King of the Belgians.
Dr Pachauri's wide-ranging expertise has resulted in his membership of various international and national committees and boards. At the international level, his current positions include Member, Advisory Board for the Clinton Climate Initiative, USA, January 2010 onwards; Member of a High Panel on Peace and Dialogue among Cultures, UNESCO, France, December 2009 onwards; President, Asian Energy Institute 1992 onwards. In addition, he is also on the board of the Global Humanitarian Forum recently founded by the former UN Secy. Gen. Kofi Annan. On the national level, Dr Pachauri has been on the Prime Minister's Advisory Council on Climate Change, June 2007 onwards.
He also has associations with academic and research institutes and has also authored 23 books and several papers and articles. Since 1999, he has been an appointed Member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Environment Agency, Government of Japan. In July 2009 he was also appointed Director, Yale Climate and Energy Institute, USA.
M. Shashidhar Reddy
Vice Chairman, NDMA India
Shri M.Shashidhar Reddy was appointed Member of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), India, from its very inception in 2005. On completion of his 5 year tenure in Oct 2010, he was reappointed Member, NDMA. As a Member, he was responsible for the subjects like Cyclone, Urban Flooding, Risk Transfer, Micro-Finance etc. Shri Reddy was elevated as Vice Chairman, NDMA in Dec 2010.
He is a fourth time sitting Member of the Andhra Pradesh State Legislative Assembly. This is the first time in India that a Member of any State legislature was appointed to a National level position. The office of Member, NDMA carries the status of Union Minister of State while the office of Vice Chairman, NDMA carries the status of Union Cabinet Minister.
Shri Reddy was a Minister for Environment, Science & Technology in the State of Andhra Pradesh in 1993. He was a Member of the official Indian delegation to the 2nd UN Commission on Sustainable Development (1994). At that time, he also visited South Africa during the elections there at the end of apartheid.
He has been very active on issues like regional development focusing on backward and remote areas of the Country, besides championing the cause of inclusive growth. He was also active on water related issues.
He held several important positions in the ruling Indian National Congress Party. He was Convener of a Task Force appointed by the Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi, to study the Naxalite problem in the Country. The Task Force included a former Chief Minister and Members of Parliament, one of whom is presently the Governor of Nagaland. He has a master’s degree in Agronomy from USA (1971-73). Prior to that he was a merit scholar of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research during his under-graduate study.
Dr. Mihir Bhatt
Director, AIDMI
Through his work in disaster mitigation, Mihir Bhatt is introducing the component of long-term social security among vulnerable poor communities who are subject to repeated disasters - natural and man-made. Addressing the issue from the victim's point of view, Dr. Mihir Bhatt’s aim is to integrate disaster mitigation with social development at the conceptual, policy and implementation level of programmes.
He started the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI) in 1990. Today it is a community based action research, action planning and action advocacy organisation. It works towards bridging the gap between policy, practice, and research related to disaster mitigation, in an effort to link the community to the (inter)national level humanitarian scenario. Its mission is to reduce disaster risk of vulnerable communities by promoting mitigation efforts, through learning and action.
A recipient of the Russel E. Twain Fellowship as well as the Eisenhower Fellowship 2000, Dr. Mihir Bhatt is the founding member and on the board of a number of development and disaster mitigation initiatives.
Mr. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh
CEO, LEAD Pakistan
Mr Ali Tauqeer Sheikh is the CEO and the Board Secretary of LEAD Pakistan. He set up the LEAD Program in Pakistan while he was a Research Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. Under his stewardship, LEAD has grown from a home-office in a car porch in 1995 to an institution in the country that is today rated by its friends and the critics as a network of hundreds of people and institutions that is taking practical initiatives to promote an economically sound, environmentally responsible and socially equitable change in various areas of sustainable development.
In March 2010, LEAD forged a partnership with the UK Department for International Development [DFID] and launched CDKN - Climate & Development Knowledge Network. Mr. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh is the CDKN’s Asia Director and in this capacity contributing towards making the globe climate compatible. He also heads LEAD’s Climate Leaders Action Network [CLAN] which gives him access to over 2,000 experts in the field.
Mr. Sheikh specialises in various facets of sustainable development, particularly in poverty-environment nexus, vulnerabilities and equitable development. He thinks quickly and makes the result oriented decisions – without fearing for making wrong decisions! ‘One should be able to decide. Making a wrong decision is much better than living in a state of indecisiveness!’ That’s what he shares with people around him.
Mr. Sheikh travels widely to represent LEAD at various national/international forums including the top meetings from the Earth Summit to Copenhagen.
He has served as advisor/consultant to a number of leading national/international organizations such as Asian Development Bank, DFID, European Commission, IDRC, IFAD, JICA, Packard Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, The Asia Foundation, UNDP, USAID, and UNESCO. He serves on the boards of several organizations; is member of various commissions and national committees working on environment and sustainable development including the apex environmental body in the country, Pakistan Environment Protection Council (PEPC) chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan. He is also a member of the Taskforce on Climate Change set up by the Planning Commission Pakistan, and the Core Group constituted by the Ministry of Environment, now known as Ministry of Climate Change, charged to advise the Government of Pakistan on climate negotiation.
Dr. Adil Najam
Vice Chancellor, LUMS
Dr. Adil Najam is the third Vice Chancellor of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Chairman of the LEAD Board, a globally renowned Pakistani academic and intellectual and a leading expert on issues related to developing country environmental policy, especially climate change. Before joining LUMS he was the Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and Professor of International Relations and of Geography & Environment, both at Boston University.
Dr Najam has served as a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), work for which the IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore. In 2008 he was nominated by the United Nations Secretary General to serve on the United Nations Committee on Development Policy (UN CDP). In 2009 he was awarded one of Pakistan’s highest civil awards, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) medal by the President of Pakistan.
Dr Najam is an expert in international diplomacy and development. His research interests include sustainable development, Muslim and South Asian politics, environmental politics in developing countries, and philanthropy among immigrant communities in the United States. Much of his work has focused on longer-term global policy problems, especially those related to human well-being and sustainable development. He contributed to Pakistan’s first environmental policy document, as well as to that country’s report to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, has worked closely with governments and civil society in both industrialized and developing countries, and regularly collaborates with the United Nations. He is a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a Visiting Fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), and serves on the Boards of the Pakistan Institute for Environment-Development Action Research (PIEDAR) and the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada.
Dr Najam is a past winner of MIT’s Goodwin Medal for Effective Teaching, the Fletcher School Paddock Teaching Award, and the Stein Rokan Award of the International Political Science Association, the ARNOVA Emerging Scholar Award, and the Pakistan Television Medal for Outstanding Achievement. He also serves on the editorial boards of various scholarly publications, including Global Governance, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, The Journal of Ecological Economics, Annual Editions: Environment, and The Encyclopedia of Earth. He is frequently interviewed by and writes for the popular media and is the founding editor of the blog Pakistaniat.com.
