We are again working on things we love: TERI chief

It has been just a few months since Ajay Mathur, former chief of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, took charge as the Director General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), at a time when the organisation was burdened with the ghosts of sexual harassment allegations against its former head RK Pachauri.

In a conversation with the Business Line , Mathur explains how the organisation has gone through the process of institutionalising systems to make its employees feel safer.

In what is possibly the most telling change, the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) – one of the biggest environmental conferences held in India and organised by TERI – has now been renamed World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) and is scheduled to take place in October. The change, however, is in more than just nomenclature. Excerpts:

The DSDS has been renamed and its venue and timing changed (from February to October). What can we expect?

Yes. Now we are going ahead with the WSDS which build on 15 years of DSDS. So, it’s a DSDS++. One of the things we realised was we talk about issues which are of importance from sustainability point of view. We try and get an international audience, but when we do it in Delhi the discussion is very India specific. What we want is to have similar summits in other parts of the world such as Ethiopia, Caribbean and so on.

By doing this, for the same kinds of issues you get more local flavour and how people deal with the same issues. We also want to see how this aligns with the kinds of initiatives and actions that corporates and agencies, such as World Bank, ADB, as well the UN Convention, together are doing so that it helps move discussions into actions.

 You are also going to have regional summits in India?

 We don’t want the discussions at WSDS to occur out of thin air. So, we are going to have these regional meetings (before the summit). We have had one in Mumbai and we are going to have at least two more. And they would provide the thinking that would go into the discussions at the summit.

Coming just ahead of the next Convention of Parties (COP) at Marrakesh, what kind of discussions do you expect at this summit?

The summit itself looks at forwarding agendas of all those working together on climate change. When you are within a negotiating room you come with papers approved by your cabinet, and you work along that. When you are here there are all kinds of trial balloons that people try out – both in developed and developing countries.

What we will have is the current president of the COP — the French Environment Minister Ségolène Royale — and the Moroccan Minister will come as well. And we hope that will allow a much more informal discussion on how we move from Paris to Marrakesh.

You are also bringing on board a lot of corporates. As always there is some mistrust between corporates and environmentalists. How do you negotiate that?

 One thing, obviously, is that they are the leaders and they need to start acting the talk. So, if someone says that I am cleaner they should be seen as having adopted technologies that make them cleaner.

An integral part is that everybody who is part of the TERI council of sustainability is committed to transparency.

So, they will declare what they are doing, what their emission levels are. So that it is completely clear what they are doing and what is the impact.

Just as in the Paris agreement, for the transparency part there are the INDCs — every country will declare what it is doing and in a manner that can be seen and verified.

Similarly, the corporates that work with us we expect that they will also subscribe to the principles of transparency. We have helped many of them write their sustainability reports.

Have things changed at TERI?

 TERI is an organisation of over 1,200 people. They are extremely enthusiastic passionate group of people.

We are now again working on the things that we love — research leading to policy, research leading to technology, research leading to services. All of which contribute to better sustainable development.

Yes, there has been a transition. There is a new director general there is a new chairman. But TERI is same we are still committed to research and to be an agent of change for sustainability.

I had an advantage. I was in this organisation for many years before I left for other things. So, many of the senior people here are those with whom I have worked earlier and I do meet them to know what challenges and excites them. This is an exciting place and I am excited as well.

Following the case with Pachauri, and the way the management dealt with the issue many questions had been raised on how TERI will deal with them at an institutional level. Can you elaborate…

What we have done is I got in a former colleague, a lady who was extremely well regarded, and she talked to over a 100 colleagues. She prepared a report, and every recommendation of that report would be implemented. What we have done is created a committee, no one from the management is part of that body, it has young people, older colleagues, those who work on field, on policy — a very broad spectrum. And this group is overseeing the process.

They are making sure we remain honest and implement the recommendations. Everyday something happens on that. I think in a couple of weeks the committee will tell the rest of their colleagues about the progress.

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