Addressing Climate Change through Collaborative Partnerships

UKIERI held a climate change event on 21 November 2007 at the British Council, Delhi to showcase and celebrate India-UK partnership in this area. It was also an occasion to formally launch two projects – UKIERI Major award on 'Science of Regional Climate Change, Variability and Impacts' implemented by University of Reading and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune and UKIERI Standard award on “Impact of climate change on the water cycle and ecosystem functioning at the river basin scale” implemented by Institute for Sustainable Water, Integrated Management & ecosystem research, University of Liverpool & IIT Delhi (Department of Civil Engineering). The event was attended by 150 people with senior representation from various ministries and science and research institutions in both countries.

After a warm welcome by Rod Pryde, Regional Director, British Council (India and Sri Lanka), Sir David King, FRS, Chief Scientific Advisor & Head of the Government Office for Science gave the keynote address. This was followed by an address from Dr PS Goel, Secretary Ministry of Earth Sciences and a presentation by Prof. Alan Thorpe, RCUK & Chief Executive, NERC.

Speaking on the occasion, Sir David King said, “I am delighted to be here. This is an extremely important event as international cooperation in the area of climate change is critical. We have through the UK India Education and Research Initiative established a step wise increase in the process of collaboration. 6 large scale projects and 60 small scale projects are already underway with a very promising and meaningful start in multiple areas through the initiative.”

Dr P S Goel while speaking on the occasion said that “I would like to thank the Government of UK for establishing this UKIERI initiative. Through the event this evening, we are showcasing our projects on climate change and giving them a boost.
We are also setting up a climate change centre at IITM, Pune and approvals within the Ministry of Earth Sciences are under way. This centre will support all researches and collaborations under the science of climate change”.

Prof Alan Thorpe in his presentation focused on the theme of partnership and wished the initiative all success. 

This was followed by a panel session on “Addressing Climate change through collaborative partnerships”.
Eminent panelists included:

1. Dr. Clare Goodess- Research Manager, University of East Anglia
2. Prof BN Goswami - Director- Indian Institute for Tropical Meteorology Pune
3. Prof Edward Maltby - Director of the Centre for Sustainable Water, Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER) - University of Liverpool
4. Prof AK Gosain – Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
5. Dr Leena Srivastava- Executive Director- The Energy and Resources Institute
6. Mr David Radcliffe – Department for International Development
7. Mr Matt Coyne - Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
8. Rod Pryde - Regional Director for India and Sri Lanka - British Council -Chair

Click here to view the photographs related to the event