CIERP Alumni Perspectives: a Conversation with Zerin Osho
By Qi Qi
About five years ago, at the end of Zerin’s third semester at Fletcher, five o’clock on a cold winter morning, Zerin dragged herself out of bed, put on a blouse over her night wear and sat in front of her desk for a remote interview with her future boss, the undersecretary general of the United Nations, Mr. Erik Solheim. Though a bit sleepy at that time of day, with her several years of experience working for a research institute on sustainable development and particularly her expertise on the great potential of energy-efficient cooling to curb climate change, Zerin impressed Mr. Solheim and got a very exciting job as his special advisor on sustainable cooling.
Back then, Mr. Solheim also served as Executive Director of UNEP. Zerin’s ambition and enthusiasm about cooling was later turned into a program called “Cool Coalition” under UNEP, which called upon decision-makers of the public and private sectors to come together to improve energy efficiency of cooling equipment and enhance faster adoption of the Kigali Amendment to reduce the consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Through this program, Zerin and her colleagues at UNEP facilitated governments of low income developing to establish their own cooling action plans and energy efficiency standards, and created a financial vehicle that granted these countries easier access to energy-efficient cooling equipment.
In March 2020, at the invitation of the founding director general of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), Zerin left UNEP with more experience on the operation of cooling projects and joined ISA as Technical Project Expert to design and deliver the seventh program of ISA –Solarization of Heating and Cooling Systems.
As extreme weather has become more frequent and intense because of climate change, the use of air conditioning is poised to increase dramatically for people living in different parts of the world. However, air conditioners have huge climate costs. Their use requires lots of fossil fuels and short lived climate pollutants called HFCs as refrigerants, which are far more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
Given the multifaceted nature of the issue, Zerin wanted to create an integrated program that at the same time addresses the emissions of both CO2 and non-CO2 greenhouse gases. Relocation back to India and the newly imposed lockdown did not slow down her work pace. After a few months of hard work, seeking support from all member countries, drafting a program proposal and convening an expert panel, Zerin successfully developed a new program on solarizing the heating and cooling systems. It was formally launched by India’s Minister of Renewable Energy, who also serves as President of ISA Assembly at the third assembly of ISA in October 2020 in the presence of ministers and ambassadors from around the world.
When exploring demonstration projects for this program, Zerin had a bigger picture in her mind which was to find a niche area and get a foothold for ISA on the international stage. One of the initial areas she decided to focus on was the development of solar powered food cold chains for safer and longer preservation of food, which could substantially reduce post-harvest food loss, a significant source of methane gas, black carbon, and increase farmers’ income. The provision of such facilities during the COVID pandemic brought the co-benefit of providing proper storage for vaccines in rural areas of developing countries.
Nigeria, with approximately 45 percent post-harvest food losses, became one of the the first countries to sign on to this program. In collaboration with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), Government of Nigeria, and the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR), an Indian private cold storage provider as well as a variety of local stakeholders, Zerin’s team at ISA facilitated the development of a food cold store pilot project, and also studied the value chain and market conditions for it to be scaled up.
In addition to this and other pilot projects, Zerin and her team organized capacity building programs for government officials on the use and need for solarizing thermal demand so as to equip them with the knowledge and skills required for independent implementation of solar projects. To guarantee the financial viability of their projects, they actively engaged with the private sector and resorted to the Solar Risk Mitigation Initiative for leveraging private sector investments. With a grant provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), they are in the process of initiating a scoping study on the socio-economic implications of sustainable food cold chains in six South Asia countries – how can they help improve export opportunities and market access for farmers in these countries.
As the cold chain program is now being implemented in several other least developing countries, Zerin takes on a new role as the coordinator of ISA to the General Assembly of the United Nations. In her new position based in Washington DC, Zerin works on enhancing the international connection and influence of ISA. Being aware of the importance of international cooperation for reducing risk and ensuring financial sustainability of solar investments in least developed countries, she explains to the UN General Assembly and other relevant international organizations the specific work that has been done by ISA to garner support and build bridges for collaboration. In her words, the goal of ISA is to facilitate faster adoption of the solar agenda whilst supporting and facilitating the faster adoption of other global climate treaties (e.g., Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), etc) among member countries and to improve their prospects for achieving the both conditional and unconditional targets of their nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
Apart from sustainable cooling, another climate issue that continues to be of great interest to Zerin and is likely to be the field of her future doctoral research is the protection of the Arctic, which is currently warming four times faster than the global average. The melting of sea ice in the Arctic has a huge impact, particularly on Indian monsoons, which are crucial for the livelihood of 70 percent of Indian population. As a lawyer by training, Zerin is investigating global legal principles of common law and the legal procedures that could be used for reducing cross-border harm to be caused by some countries’ commercial expansion into the Arctic. She has directly contributed to the inclusion of short-lived climate pollutants into India’s Arctic Policy and is also working with the Indian and U.S. governments on the accountability mechanism for damages caused by what happens in the Arctic. As she analyzed how all countries, people’s livelihoods, and nature are inextricably linked to the Arctic, I was impressed by the depth and breadth of her climate expertise and even more so by her ability to integrate the interconnections between different aspects of climate change into her proposed solutions.
Zerin said she had been tremendously lucky because all of her bosses had been her mentors, directly contributing to everything she had been able to do in her life. We all know that chance favors only the prepared mind. We very much appreciate Zerin for sharing her amazing stories about how she has turned her insights and passion about climate change into concrete GHG reduction programs that exert a positive influence on people’s lives, but also look forward to even more exciting career achievements from her in the near future! ∎
This is the third post in the AAPI Heritage Month blog series.
Qi Qi is a postdoctoral scholar at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.