The Second WSDF Patrons Meeting

IHC, New Delhi
9 February 2008

The Second WSDF Patrons Meeting was held on 9th February 2008, during the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2008. The WSDF Patrons and members of the Advisory Committee revisited the WSDF initiatives so far and discussed the future course of action.

The meeting was attended by:

Chair:
 Dr R K Pachauri, Director-General, TERI and Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Patrons
 HE Mr Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, President of Iceland;
 Prof. Jeffrey D Sachs, Director - Earth Institute and Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations
 Dr Hiroyuki Watanabe, Senior Technical Executive, Toyota Motor Corporation, who participated on behalf of Dr Shoichiro Toyoda, Honorary Chairman/ Member of the Board, Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan
 HE Ms Ann Ollestad, Ambassador, Royal Norwegian Embassy, on behalf of HE Mr Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway

Advisory Committee Members
 Ms Kseniya Lvovsky, Program Leader for Climate Change, Environment Department, World Bank, on behalf of Mr Warren Evans, Director of Environment, The World Bank, USA
 Dr Prodipto Ghosh, Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India and Distinguished Fellow, TERI
  Mr Xianbin Yao, Acting-Director General - Regional and Sustainable Development Department, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines
 Dr Ligia Noronha, Director, Resources and Global Security Division, TERI
 Dr Pal Prestrud, Director, Center for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo, Norway
  Dr Leena Srivastava, Executive Director (Operations), TERI
 Dr Kazuhiko Takeuchi, Vice President for International Relations, The University of Tokyo,

At the meeting, discussions were directed towards the creation of an action plan of activities to be undertaken under the forum for the coming year. Some of the pertinent points discussed and suggested during the meeting include:

TERI should under the aegis of WSDF pursue work on global scale look at water, climate and impacts of agriculture. Given TERI’s experience in and information gained on watersheds and water end competing issues in the country.

Under the WSDF, Regional Sustainable Development Summit series, in 2007, TERI successfully conducted the second RSDS in Tunis, Tunisia. The Summit attracted participation of the highest calibre from the entire North African and Mediterranean region. As a part of the conclusions reached, the Summit also resulted in declaration that was publicized in Bali. Taking these forward, during the Patrons and Advisory Committee meeting it was proposed to hold the next RSDS in Valencia, Spain and Manilla, Philippines respectively.

It was proposed to take on board, TERI’s Lighting a Billion Lives” campaigns, in order to publicize, organize resources and get partners to work with on a large scale. In this regard, many suggestions were made during the meeting, with a view of spreading the campaign and making it a worldwide movement.

WSDF draws from the DSDS and aims to make it into an instrument of global outreach. The Patrons and Advisory Committee Members provided valuable suggestions for the Summit’s way forward. It was suggested to convert DSDS from an annual meeting to a continuing process. In this direction efforts such as to have greater participation of business leaders, a series of delegation representing the summit, take the messages and conclusions from the summit to institutions, governments and companies’ world over would go a long way to spread the messages emerging from the summit. It was also suggested, WSDF to be a convening group for an international society, which can carry the umbrella of scientific research forward and linking it to the policy world.