US aims to rebuild clean energy relation with India

The newly elected government of the United States of America (USA) wants to restart the clean energy programmes which were jointly being developed during former President Obama’s regime.

“Between Prime Minister Modi’s first visit to the US in September, 2014 and President Obama’s trip to India in January, 2015, it was a great privilege to work with my Indian counterparts in creating and expanding 15 co-operative programmes between Indian and the US, and we intend to rebuild that relationship,” Andrew Light, who leads the office of international affairs at the US department of energy, said on Wednesday.

Light was speaking at the virtual event on the signing of the framework for strategic partnership between the International Energy Agency (IEA) members and the government of India. The partnership aims to enhance global energy security, stability and sustainability, and is seen as a stepping stone towards India becoming a full member of the IEA. The contents of the strategic partnership will be jointly decided by the IEA members and India, including a phased increase in benefits and responsibilities for the country as an IEA strategic partner.

India has set a target to raise the capacity of installed renewable energy generation plants from the current level of 91 giga-watt (GW) to 450 GW by 2030. About 35 GW is under various stages of implementation and 30 GW under various stages of bidding. If the 45.7 GW of hydro and 6.8 GW of nuclear capacities are included, the target under the Paris climate change accord of having 40% of installed power generation capacity from non-fossil fuel sources can be achieved by 2022 itself.

“It is precisely this kind of bold action by India, which in fact goes beyond the initial Paris commitments, that President Biden is championing our partners to jointly tackle climate change,” Light, Who served as senior adviser and India counselor to the US from 2013 to 2016, added.