Facing Environmental Crisis in South Asia: Challenges and Responses

Day One I 29 April 2024 

Amphi 28 - 28 rue Saint Guillaume - Paris 7

9:00: Opening by Sergei Guriev, Sciences Po Provost

9:30: Introductory remarks by Mrs Chandrika Kumaratunga, Former President of Sri Lanka and a Sciences Po alumna

10:00 – 12:30 : A Crisis of a Different Magnitude

Chair: Alexandre Mariani, Sciences Po-DAI
Discussant: Charlotte Halpern, Sciences Po-CEE/CNRS

Christophe Jaffrelot, Sciences Po-CERI/CNRS
Hydric Stress, Air Pollution and Deforestation in India

Isha Ray, Berkeley University/LSE
Community and the Commons: Case Studies from India, Nepal and Bangladesh

--- Lunch break ---

13:45 – 16:45 South Asian Cities and Climate Change

Chair: Sukriti Issar, Sciences Po-CRIS/CNRS
Discussant: Laurent Gayer, Sciences Po-CERI/CNRS

Lalitha Kamath, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
Fisher Stories that Reframe Climate Action in Mumbai

Umair Javed, Lahore University of Management Studies, Lahore
Urban Villages, Environmental Transformation, and Local Politics in Lahore

Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements, Dakha
The Future is Fluid: Water as an Existential Theme in Architecture and Urbanism in Bangladesh

Day Two I 30 April 2024

Amphi 28 - 28 rue Saint Guillaume - Paris 7

9:00 – 11:00: Rural Issues and Agricultural Innovations

Chair: Olivia Aubriot, CESAH-EHESS/CNRS
Discussant: Hemal Thakker, Sciences Po alumnus

Frédéric Landy, Nanterre University
An Agriculture Adapted to the Instability of Tropical Climates, but not yet to Climate Change

Anne Sophie Poisot, Office of Innovation, FAO
Micro-Farming and Macroeconomic Transitions Towards Climate-Resilient Agroecology in Andhra Pradesh, India

11:00 – 12:30: Panel discussion on South Asia and Climate Negotiations

Moderator: Richard Balme, Sciences Po-CEE/CNRS

Amy Dahan, CNRS emeritus research director
Joseph Delatte, Resident Fellow at Institut Montaigne
Lola Vallejo, IDDRI and UNFCC

--- Lunch break ---

14:00 – 16:45: Mitigation, Adaptation and Resistance

Manisha Anantharaman, Sciences Po-CSO/CNRS
From Performative to Transformative Environmentalism: Seeking Cross-Class Coalitions for Climate Justice

Clément Imbert, Sciences Po-Economy Department
Climate Change and Seasonal Migration in India: Evidence from Railway Data

Matthew Gordon, Paris School of Economics
Targeting Disaster: Visibility and vulnerability after the 2015 Nepal Earthquake

--- Coffee break ---

17:15 – 18:45: Keynote address by Esther Duflo, Collège de France and MIT
Introduced by Sergei Guriev

18:45 – 19:00: Concluding remarks by Christophe Jaffrelot