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US, India issue joint statement on Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030
Through the partnership, the US and India are firmly committed to working together in achieving their ambitious climate and clean energy targets and to strengthening bilateral collaboration across climate and clean energy.
Through the US India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 partnership, the US and India aim to demonstrate how the world can align swift climate action with economic development, taking into account national circumstances and sustainable development priorities, a US-India joint statement released on Thursday night.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday announced the launch of the joint climate and clean energy initiative to “mobilise investments, demonstrate clean technologies and enable green collaborations” in India that could also “create templates of sustainable development” for other developing countries.
The statement said the partnership will proceed along two main tracks—the strategic clean energy partnership co-chaired by Secretary of Energy Granholm, and the Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue, co-chaired by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.
“Both the United States and India have set ambitious 2030 targets for climate action and clean energy. In its new nationally determined contribution (NDC), the US has set an economy-wide target of reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions by 50–52% below 2005 levels in 2030. As part of its climate mitigation efforts, India has set a target of installing 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030.”
Through the partnership, the US and India are firmly committed to working together in achieving their ambitious climate and clean energy targets and to strengthening bilateral collaboration across climate and clean energy.
“The partnership will aim to mobilize finance and speed clean energy deployment; demonstrate and scale innovative clean technologies needed to decarbonize sectors including industry, transportation, power, buildings; and build capacity to measure, manage, and adapt to the risks of climate-related impacts,” the statement added.
HT had reported on March 29 that Petroleum minister, Dharmendra Pradhan and Granholm agreed to prioritise greater collaboration in the clean energy sector, such as biofuels, carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), hydrogen production and carbon sequestration, through technology exchange, joint research and development (R&D) through Partnership to Advance Clean Energy Research (PACE-R) as part of the strategic partnership.
Independent experts welcomed the US’s upgraded NDC. “The new NDC target that the US submitted aims to reduce its GHG emissions by 50-52% below 2005 levels. Since the US’ emissions grew between 1990 and 2005, this new target roughly amounts to a 43-45% reduction below its 1990 emissions or its 2020 emissions. This is a step in the right direction, particularly when combined with its commitment to net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. Unlike the UK and EU, however, the US’ pledge is not yet enshrined in law. But it has the potential to spur technological innovation,” said Ulka Kelkar, director, climate programme, World Resources Institute.
The US on Thursday also released its international climate finance plan. “The US intends to double, by 2024, our annual public climate finance to developing countries relative to the average level during the second half of the Obama-Biden Administration (FY 2013-2016). As part of this goal, the United States intends to triple our adaptation finance by 2024. The Biden Administration will work closely with Congress to meet these goals,” the plan said. Several experts said the USA’s climate finance plan is not ambitious enough. World Resources Institute’s Joe Thwaites, an expert in climate finance said in a tweet: “The climate finance plan the Biden administration launched today starts to play catch up after the US was largely absent for the last four years…In this time many other developed countries already doubled their climate finance, and some committed to doubling again before 2025. In this light Biden’s commitment to doubling its public climate finance by 2024 compared to the 2013-16 baseline is not particularly ambitious.”
