The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized the ninth edition of the Chamber’s signature programme, the Environment and Energy Conclave, in association with Coal India Limited, on 25th August 2016 in ITC Sonar, Kolkata. Shri Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge, Power & Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Government of West Bengal graced the Conclave as the Chief Guest. The Conclave featured signing of Memorandum of Understanding between The Energy and Resources Institute and the Chamber for working together in the realm of Renewables and allied areas. Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Mr. Deb A Mukherjee, Chairperson, Energy and Environment Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed the MoU. Mr. Jonathan T. Ward, Principal Commercial Officer, U.S. Consulate General Kolkata made a Special Presentation on ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. Dr. Ajay Mathur, set the tone by speaking on, ‘Will the Climate Change after Paris? - As assessment of India’s energy strategies and INDCs’. Shri Sutirtha Bhattacharya, IAS, Chairman and Managing Director, Coal India Ltd spoke about, ‘Coal – India’s mainstay - What you did not know about Coal – an efficient clean and low emission pathway’. Shri Anil Razdan, IAS, Former Secretary, Power, Government of India delivered his address on, ‘The Balance between Conventional and Renewables for India’s Energy Basket – Economic Feasibility’. Shri P S Bhattacharyya, Former Chairman and Managing Director, Coal India Ltd presented the Theme ‘The Energy Climate Synergy’. The Inaugural Session also included a Power Panel which had Mr. Deepak Amitabh, IRS, Chairman and Managing Director, PTC India Limited; Mr. Debasis Gupta, GM (Special Projects), CESC Limited and Mr. Santosh Kamath, Partner- Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare, KPMG Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd. as speakers. The topics were ‘Open Access, Electricity Trading and power Markets in India’; ‘Power Distribution for the future’ and ‘Ever evolving and increasingly important energy sector in India’ respectively. CUTS International was the Consumer Connect Partner of the Chamber. Mr. Udai S Mehta, Deputy Executive Director, CUTS International presented the Draft Comments on the Conclave theme, which would be finalized after collating the speeches and recommendations of the speakers.

The Sessions on ‘Generating cost effective power in the context of progressive technology’ and ‘How feasible is the Renewables Target of 175 GW by 2022’ were joined by Mr. Ashok Kr Goswami, Wholetime Director, India Power Corporation Limited; Dr. R R Sonde, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, Research, Innovation & Technology, Thermax Limited; Dr. Bikash Sinha, Homi Bhabha Professor, DAE, Former Director, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India; Mr Shirish S Garud, Director, EETD (Energy-Environment Technology Development) Division, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Mr. Sriram Kuchimanchi, Founder and Principal, Smarter Dharma.

Dr. Kirit S Parikh, Former Member, Planning Commission and Chairman, Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe) was the Valedictory Speaker who addressed on ‘Business Opportunities in the era of Energy Climate Synergy’.

The annual Environment and Energy Conclave, an international forum for Climate Change mitigation and business response, is held every August and is the preferred forum for discussing environmental and climate challenges and mitigation actions in sync with India’s clean energy-led development pathway.

This year, The Conclave addressed the issue of bringing about a balance in India’s energy basket and power infrastructure by focusing on the theme, “Energy Climate Synergy – India’s Clean Energy Realities”.