India, US to pursue ways to deepen their partnership on climate, clean energy

India and the US will pursue ways in which they can deepen their partnership on climate and clean energy, the Biden administration said on Thursday after Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi during which they affirmed that the two countries can creatively collaborate on a 2030 agenda.

Kerry travelled to India this week and met with Modi, during which they discussed US-India cooperation on addressing the climate crisis and raising global ambition heading into President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate April 22-23, the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change later this year, and beyond, the State Department said.

Kerry and Modi affirmed that given the two nations' shared desire to combat climate change and complementary strengths, the USt and India can creatively collaborate on a 2030 agenda for clean and green technologies in the service of the planet.

''Officials of the two countries will pursue ways in which they can deepen their partnership on climate and clean energy in this critical decade,” the State Department said in a readout of Kerry’s India travel.

During the meeting, Kerry highlighted Biden’s support for the enduring comprehensive global strategic partnership with India and the importance of two of the world’s largest economies leading together on climate action.

Kerry shared that the US supports India’s ambitious agenda for climate action during the 2020s, particularly the target announced by Prime Minister Modi of installing 450 gigawatts of renewable energy by the end of the decade.

''They discussed the need for ambitious climate action in this critical decade by all countries in line with their national circumstances to keep a Paris Agreement-aligned temperature limit within reach to avoid the worst climate impacts,” the readout said.

During his India visit, Kerry laid out Biden’s vision for historic US investments to spur a clean energy revolution and create millions of good-paying union jobs.

There was broad consensus on the value of enhanced bilateral cooperation across multiple areas, including mobilising finance to support clean energy deployment at scale; cooperating on adaptation and resilience; and collaborating on innovation and scaling up emerging technologies for energy storage, green hydrogen, clean industrial processes, and sustainable urbanisation and agriculture, the State Department said.

Kerry conveyed Biden’s welcome of Modi’s participation at the Leaders Summit on Climate and of the United States and India working constructively to make COP26 in Glasgow a success.

In addition to meeting with Modi, Kerry also met with Indian Minister of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar; Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman; Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar; and Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan.

He also had meetings with the Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy Raj Kumar Singh; Minister of Railways and Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal; Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pramod Kumar Mishra; and NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.

Kerry engaged in roundtable discussions with business and civil society leaders, including a roundtable with women leaders in energy and climate change.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)