The US Climate envoy, John Kerry lauded India’s leadership role in demonstrating how economic development and clean energy can go hand in hand.
India and the United States of America (USA) launched the “Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD)”. The CAFMD is one of the two tracks of the India-U.S. Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 partnership launched at the Leaders' Summit on Climate in April 2021, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joseph Biden.
The dialogue was formally launched by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Bhupender Yadav and John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC), at an event held in New Delhi.
Speaking at the launch, Yadav said that the dialogue will not only strengthen India-US bilateral cooperation on climate and environment but will also help to demonstrate how the world can align swift climate action with inclusive and resilient economic development, taking into account national circumstances and sustainable development priorities.
“India and the United States are natural partners with shared values and our agenda encompasses all major pillars of our strategic priorities - including defense, security, energy, technology, education and healthcare,” said the Environment Minister emphasizing the deep ties shared by the two mature and vibrant democracies.
Speaking at the launch of Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD), Kerry applauded Prime Minister Modi for setting an ambitious target of achieving 450GW renewable energy by 2030 and congratulated India for already achieving 100 GW.
The US Climate envoy lauded India’s leadership role in demonstrating how economic development and clean energy can go hand in hand and stated that urgent Global Climate Action is the need of the hour. He stressed that India and the US are working towards speedier deployment of clean energy.
R.K. Singh, Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy also met a delegation led by John Kerry. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss further collaboration on climate change issues and to work towards a genuine partnership between the two countries to pave the way for the rest of the world on Energy Transition. Aside from appreciating India's drive and commitment to achieve 450 GW of RE by 2030, the US delegation also lauded India for electrifying 28.02 million homes in 18 months and achieved universal household electrification.
The Minister informed the US side about GoI’s intent to move towards clean energy transition. He further informed that the biggest challenge for infusing of RE was “Storage” which needs to be addressed immediately to make power accessible to the masses. He mentioned that huge bids for Green Hydrogen and Electrolyzers are planned in the upcoming months. He also highlighted India’s upcoming projects in Ladakh on Green Hydrogen and Green Energy Corridors.
SPEC proposed that USA is willing to enter into a genuine collaboration with India to enable us realise the ambitious target of reaching 450 GW Renewable Energy by 2030 which would pave the way to India achieving sub 2°C level, much more than what has been committed under Paris Climate Agreement.
Singh showed his concern towards over 800 million people across the world who do not have access to electricity. He urged the US side to join the International Solar Alliance which can benefit many countries.