Forging new bonds: An Indo-Swiss collaborative journey

Professor Mehra’s research interests are at the interface of environmental and climate economics, climate adaptation, extreme climate and welfare, heat and health impacts, growth theory, development macroeconomics, international trade, energy economics, and politics of regulation.

She received the K2A mobility grant to visit centre on Environment and Climate: Impacts, Risks and Adaptation (EClim), Department of Geography at the University of Zurich and the School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (HAFL) at the Bern University of Applied Sciences. At the University of Zurich, Prof. Mehra was hosted by Professor Christian Huggel (Professor, EClim) and Dr Veruska Muccione (Senior Scientist, EClim), while at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, the hosts were Dr Christine Jurt (Associate Professor, HAFL) and Professor Roland Stähli (Academic Dean, HAFL).

Prof. Mehra has had a long-standing relationship with Professor Huggel, Dr Muccione and Dr Jurt on projects relating to climate vulnerability and adaptation, especially in the mountain regions of India. The case study on mapping climate risks for Ladakh, India, is one such important research endeavour, which was initiated as a part of knowledgeforclimate network funded by swissuniversities Development and Cooperation Network (SUDAC). The K2A mobility grant was valuable in taking these collaborations forward as well as by creating possibilities for new ones.

At HAFL, intensive meetings and discussions were held over the next three days with Dr Jurt, Dr Muccione and Dr Isabel Häberli (HAFL) on the ongoing work on the Ladakh case study, in particular, relating to the writing of the draft paper and extending the work to a field study in the vulnerable regions/ communities in Ladakh. HAFL at the Bern University of Applied Sciences provided funding support to embark on this field work, which is a perception survey of important stakeholders and communities feeling the effects of climate change in different regions of the Union Territory of Ladakh. Separately, discussions were also held with the local and other collaborators, in particular, Ms Kunzes Dolma (Energy Advisor, LAHDC, Leh, Ladakh and Doctoral Scholar, Reykjavik University, Iceland) and Ms Jheelum Sarkar (Doctoral Scholar at the American University, Washington DC, USA), on the scope and specific locations of the survey. The survey aims to complement and corroborate the existing results on the assessment of climate risks wherein the latter draws upon large secondary data sets and utilizes the well-established vulnerability-exposure-hazard framework for the analysis.

 At EClim Zurich, Prof. Mehar presented the brown-bag seminar on “Welfare Effects of Catastrophic Climate Events on Mountain Communities: A Case Study of the Uttarakhand Flash Floods, India”. The seminar drew large participation from faculty, scientists and fellows of the department. She also had a meeting and very useful interaction with Professor David Hemous at the Department of Economics, University of Zurich. Some very interesting research ideas in areas of growth economics, development and climate change interactions were discussed, which are closely aligned with their individual academic interests.

On April 18, she attended the research forum on the topic “GreenFjord – an interdisciplinary project on fjord-ecosystems in Greenland” where the speakers were Professor Andreas Vieli and Dr Armin Dachauer of the Department of Geography, University of Zurich. All these interactions were valuable in terms of bringing to fore the need for interdisciplinary in research relating to climate change. Subsequently, in the evening, she attended the lectures presented by Dr Veruska Muccione and Professor Ivo Wallimann-Helmer, Environmental Humanities, Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg on the Guttannen case study.

A subsequent informal meeting of Professor Mehra with Dr Jurt and Professor Prof. Gurbir Singh Bhullar (HAFL) also led to valuable ideas on possibilities of future research on climate and sustainable agro-ecosystems in Indo-Swiss shared context.

Alongside, during the course of that week, discussions were regularly held between Dr Muccione, Dr Seyed Saeid Ashraf Vaghefi and Professor Mehra on the possibilities of future work on quantification of health impacts due to heat stress in differing geo-climatic regions of India by relying on a mix of experimental, statistical and machine learning/ artificial intelligence (ML/AI) based approaches. These discussions subsequently culminated in joint formulation and submission of the proposal on “Assessing Heat Stress Related Mortality and Morbidity: Case Studies from Hot Semi-Arid and Coastal Regions of India” with EClim, to STEG-CEPR (Structural Transformation and Economic Growth-Centre for Economic Policy Research) for funding support.

On April 19, 2023, Professor Mehra presented the SWEEEP (Series of Webinars in Environmental and Energy Economics and Policy) seminar at the Department of Management, Technology and Economics and Centre for Energy Policy and Economics, ETH Zurich on the topic of “Welfare Effects of Catastrophic Climate Events on Mountain Communities: A Case Study of the Uttarakhand Flash Floods, India”. This was hosted by Professor Lucas Bretschger (CER-ETH) and Professor Massimo Filippini (CEPE-ETH). The seminar was attended by many faculty members, fellows and students of the department and led to thought provoking discussion on this research. Subsequently, interactive meetings were held with Professors Bretschger and Fillipino, including an extended visit to CEPE and CER, ETH on April 26, 2023 for more a detailed discussion on the possibilities of future collaboration on energy, climate change and socio-economic impacts using quasi experimental approaches.  

During the visit, Professor Mehra also had the opportunity to meet Professor Swetha Rao Dhanaka, lead coordinator for Knowledge2Action South Asia and Professor, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO), School of Social Work Fribourg (HETS-FR). This meeting led to extensive discussion on how the existing K2A network has provided the immensely useful opportunity for Indo-Swiss research collaboration on issues surrounding climate and sustainability, and how could this be strengthened further going forward.

A lecture on “Mapping Climate Risk Index (CRI): a Case Study of Ladakh, India” was rendered by Professor Mehra on April, 25, 2023 to the Masters students in the Department of Geography, University of Zurich. This generated considerable interest among the students, and the possibility of converting these outcomes into teaching material for graduate students.

Professor Mehra had the opportunity to again visit the HAFL, Bern University of Applied Sciences for a lecture on “Mapping Climate Risk Index (CRI): a Case Study of Ladakh, India” for the undergraduate students on April 27, 2023. The lecture was facilitated by Dr Sebastien-Pierre Boillat and it led to interesting discussion with the students, especially by drawing parallels with the Swiss experiences in the agrarian communities. The subsequent joint meeting with Professor Roland Stähli and Dr Sebastien-Pierre Boillat was insightful and helped discuss possibilities of future cooperation and research. 

Last but not the least, the visit also involved a series of socio-cultural interactions and visits to places of interest on the weekend, facilitated by Dr Muccione, Dr Jurt, Dr Haeberli and Dr Holger Frey (EClim, University of Zurich) and the meeting with which always included elements of learning and comprehending how environmental and sustainability concerns cut across continents and socio-economic milieus. Indeed, this visit was an immensely gainful professional experience for Professor Meeta Keswani Mehra.