Profile Interview: R K Sethi – Key official, Indian Delegation

Posted on 07. Jun, 2009 by Leela Raina in Adopt a Negotiator, India

Mr. R. K. Sethi

R K Sethi Interview Profile

Member Secretary, The National CDM Authority -Designated National Authority (DNA); Ministry of Environment and Forests; Chairman, CDM Executive Board, UNFCCC Secretariat

The aim of profiling our negotiators is getting to know them at a personal level and hence understanding how they make decisions. Some really interesting insights and dimensions of our negotiators ‘ personalities.

Academic Profile

A bachelors degree in electrical engineering and a Masters in Technology in Energy Studies from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi and then continued to a complete an MBA degree.

Countries visited /liked most

Visited a lot of countries but like Germany the most.

Indian Routes

Have lived in Delhi for most of his life but ancestrally grandparents were on the Lahore side of India before partition

Family Background

Father was in the Indian Army and had a wife and a son

Hobbies/Interests

Philately – as in the study of stamps and also the collection, reading and playing Table Tennis

Traits

Refused to tell us his traits and was very modest saying that we should consult others to get an opinion about the positive and negative traits of his .

Experience in this field

Was involved from 2002 where he was the chief organizer of the COP8  -  Eighth Conference of Parties under UNFCCC in New Delhi.  In charge of Climate Change and CDM setting up in 2001 and then the establishment of the Designated National Authority (DNA) . This took  around 5 to 6 months and a lot of bureaucratic efforts. After which he is member secretary of the DNA now. At the International level  he has been the Vice Chair of the Executive Board of the CDM under UNFCCC where now he is the Chairman.

Passion/what drives him to make a change?/inspiration/special stories

Mr Sethi believes in reforming the sytem and making it more public friendly . He wants to make a DNA website of India and in the course of the next 3-4 months make the DNA office perfectly paperless and have no hard copies existing or to be printed.