For over a decade and a half, Vijai Sharma fought for the rights of India and other developing countries at the international climate negotiations. He was one of the architects of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which strongly safeguarded the interests of the developing countries, and ensured that the primary responsibility of reducing the impacts of climate change was taken by the rich and the developed world.
A 1974-batch IAS officer, who served as the Environment Secretary and then as Chief Information Commissioner, Sharma died in the United States, where he was visiting his son on July 23, after suffering a stroke, family sources said. He was 75. Sharma lived in Lucknow.
Sharma had two productive stints in the Environment Ministry. During his first stint as joint secretary, between 1995 and 2001, he became India’s chief negotiator at international climate talks, which had just been initiated, and strongly influenced the finalisation of the Kyoto Protocol. He was also instrumental in ensuring that Delhi hosted these talks COP8 in 2002.
After stints in the Cabinet Secretariat, and other places, Sharma returned to the Environment Ministry as its Secretary in 2008. By this time, the developed countries had already begun the process of dismantling the Kyoto Protocol, and replacing it with something they were more comfortable with. This was also the time when India’s environmental governance came under great scrutiny, with an increasing number of industrial and infrastructure projects testing the environmental norms. Sharma presided over a period of strengthening of India’s environmental regulatory structure to bring in greater transparency.
“Vijay Sharma was the quintessential civil servant — fearless in giving advice but faithful in execution even when his advice was not taken. I have many fond memories of my close association with him for a decade and a half. He had wide interests and possessed an irreverent sense of humour. He loved it when he himself became the subject of humour, laughing at the description I once gave him — Sir Humphrey Sharma (Humphrey Appleby was a character from the British TV series Yes Minister),” said Jairam Ramesh, then Environment Minister under whom Sharma served as Secretary.
After retiring, Sharma became an expert member at the National Green Tribunal, a new institution created during his time, before being appointed the Chief Information Commissioner. Sharma, who had a postgraduate law degree from Harvard University, had a passion for history, and authored, along with his wife and IAS officer Rita Sharma, a few books on the forts of India.
But he continued to be sought out for his expertise on environment and climate law and policy.
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“As an administrator he had a keen eye for details. He used to recall with great pride how he had to burn midnight oil, as G77 and China coordinator in the climate negotiations, to shape the rules of the carbon market under the Kyoto Protocol. He was also quite proud of his contribution to the introduction of CNG buses in Delhi under the Supreme Court orders and recounted in detail how the decision was implemented. His departure leaves a void in the world of climate negotiators of the Kyoto era. He will be deeply missed by those who worked with him when India’s climate policy was still shaping up in the early years of this century,” said R R Rashmi, former IAS officer and chief negotiator on climate talks himself.
