South Asian Parliamentarians’ Meet at CoP 27 to Advance Regional Energy Cooperation

Parliamentarians from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan resolved to work

jointly to further strengthen regional energy cooperation and transition, to mitigate climate

change and promote energy security. In a meeting organized on 8 th November during CoP 27

at Sharm el Shaikh, Egypt, a number of senior parliamentarians have decided to lay the

ground for the formation of Regional Parliamentary Forum in the near future, in line with

their respective national governments. ‘Parliamentarians’ Roundtable on South Asian

Regional Energy cooperation’ was organized by Climate Parliament and USAID. The

Parliamentarians would also give feedback to their national delegations representing

their countries at COP on the issues discussed and the key recommendations taken out in

the meeting.

In the day-long meeting, members of parliaments interacted with climate change and energy

experts from IRENA, European Climate Foundation, TERI, University College London, USAID

and Climate Parliament. A wide range of issues were discussed like, the role of energy co-

operation in advancing energy transition, importance of networks in encouraging

government action and alleviating political and policy challenges, European grid

interconnection and power market and lessons learned for regional energy cooperation,

energy transition in South Asia and regional progress on energy cooperation, energy trade

in South Asia and the need for political engagement, current challenges to regional energy cooperation, the best practices and experiences and parliamentary advocacy, and the future

parliamentary actions for regional energy cooperation.