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Mr Jeffrey D. Sachs University Professor and Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University

R Mukundan Managing Director and CEO, Tata Chemicals

Mr Sumit Sharma Associate Director, Earth Science and Climate Change, TERI

Mr Takehiko Nakao President, Asian Development Bank

Mr Kjell Magne Bondevik Former Prime Minister, Norway & President, The Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights

Ms Mary Robinson Former President, Ireland & UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Climate Change

Dr José Ramos-Horta Former President, East Timor & Chair, High Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations, United Nations

Mr Kailash Satyarthi Founder, Bachpan Bachao Andolan & Chairperson, Global March Against Child Labour

Mr Venkatesh Valluri Chairman and President, Ingersoll Rand

Ms Lise Grande UN Resident Coordinator & UNDP Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme, India

Mr Achim Steiner UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director

Dr Kandeh K Yumkella Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All & Chief Executive Officer of the Sustainable Energy for All

Dr Yuan Tseh Lee Nobel Laureate & President, International Council for Science

Mr Kofi Annan Chairman, Kofi Annan Foundation & Former Secretary-General, United Nations

Mr William Hammink Mission Director, USAID, India

Ms Tarja Halonen Former President of Finland

Dr Mariyam Shakeela Minister of Environment and Energy, Maldives

Mr Donald Ramotar President, Guyana

Mr Anote Tong President, Kiribati

Mr Marcin Korolec Minister of Environment, Poland

Mr Krishan Dhawan Chief Executive Officer, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation

Mr Michael Christiansen Chairman of the Board, Danish Cultural Institute (DCI), Denmark

Mr Zubin Irani Senior Managing Director - Commercial Companies, United Technologies Corporation (UTC), India

Lord John Prescott Former Deputy Prime Minister & Member of Parliament, House of Lords, UK

Dr Naoko Ishii CEO & Chairperson, Global Environment Facility

Mr Martin Hiller Director General, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP)

Mr Donald Kaberuka President, African Development Bank

Mr Haruhiko Kuroda President, Asian Development Bank

Mr Thomas L Friedman Foreign Affairs Columnist, The New York Times

Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University & Special Advisor to the Secretary-General of the United Nations

Prof. Joseph Stiglitz Professor, Columbia University and Nobel laureate

Mr Kofi Annan

Chairman, Kofi Annan Foundation & Former Secretary-General, United Nations

Delivering the keynote address at Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2014, Mr Kofi Annan emphasized the need for coherent global policies that keep sustainability at the heart of the development framework. He elaborated on the lack of availability of basic amenities across major population sectors in India and Africa. Mr Annan stressed on four main points: (i) Climate change and the need for countries to agree to a globally binding agreement by 2015, irrespective of their stage of development; (ii) Sustainability must be at the heart of a global development framework; (iii) Policy coherence among nations with sustainability at the core of national policy making; and (iv) Need to leverage the full potential of every human being by reducing gender inequality.

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