Successful transitions to net zero for China and India are critical if the world is to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement. Their starting points – including the structure of their economies and institutions – are very different. Consequently, their approach to the governance of the transition will have to diverge. In this talk, based on ongoing research by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Chief Economist Erik Berglof will present the strategies and governance architecture adopted by the two countries – what they have set out to achieve and how they have approached the implementation so far. The objective is to showcase the spectrum of policies that are available to policymakers and identify lessons for the rest of the emerging and developing world.

Erik Berglof is the inaugural Chief Economist at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). He sets the vision and strategy for the Economics Department and is a member of the Bank’s Executive Committee. Prior to joining AIIB in September 2020, he was Director of the Institute of Global Affairs, London School of Economics, and Chief Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 2006 to 2015, where he was part of creating, and co-led, the Vienna Initiative, a European crisis response team credited with mitigating the impact of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. During his tenure at the AIIB, he has focused on how infrastructure and global value chains can be used to address climate change, nature loss and threats to planetary health. He has been visiting faculty in the Stanford Economics and SIEPR and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Science (CASBS).