India and the United States will launch a funding initiative to “speed” India’s transition to clean energy during Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry’s three-day visit to New Delhi starting Sunday.
The Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD), as the mechanism is called, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden during a climate summit the latter had hosted virtually of 40 world leaders in April.
John Kerry has spoken of the United States and allied countries raising a “huge amount” of private sector investment to help India’s efforts to mitigate global warming.
During his visit from September 12 to 14, John Kerry, who first visited India in his current avatar in April, will meet Indian government counterparts and private sector leaders and discuss efforts to “raise global climate ambition and speed India’s clean energy transition”, the US state department said in a statement announcing his visit.
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, India has pledged to reduce emissions intensity of GDP by 33%-35% below the 2005 level by 2030; raise the non-fossil share of cumulative of power generation capacity 40% by 2030; and create additional (cumulative) carbon sink (something like a forest or a natural environment to absorb CO2 emissions) of 2.5-3 GtCo2e (a measure for greenhouse gases).
India had also put forward a condition for meeting its targets: transfer of technology and low-cost international finance.
The state department announcement said that the two countries will launch the CAFMD during the visit, describing it as one of the two main tracks of the US-India Agenda 2030 Partnership that President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced at the Leaders Summit on Climate in April 2021.
The White House had then said that the 2030 partnership agenda will “aim to mobilise finance and speed clean energy deployment; demonstrate and scale innovative clean technologies needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across sectors including industry, transportation, power, and buildings; and build capacity to measure, manage, and adapt to the risks of climate-related impacts”.
John Kerry’s visit to India – his second since his appointment to this role – was described by the state department as a part of US initiative to bolster bilateral and multilateral climate efforts ahead of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to be held from October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow, UK.
Source: hindustantimes.com
