Right Climate for a Handshake

The Indian Express 21st November 2020 Save

Context: India must reach out to the new United States (US) administration and propose a bilateral deal that shifts focus from political rhetoric to climate action.

Challenges before India in global climate politics:

Rising demand for climate actions from the developed nations: under the Paris Climate Agreement; with the new US administration looking for a revival of its partnership under the agreement.
- The US intends to spend more than $2 trillion on energy and infrastructure to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and aims to have zero-emission power generation by 2035.
- The European Union and the US have promised to bring border tariffs triggering climate-related disputes.
More political rhetoric and less accountability: Recent announcements by China (2060), the EU (2050) and Japan (2050) for net-zero emissions are rhetorical, but places a moral burden on India.

Measures taken by India:

Providing access to electricity and clean cooking energy, massive reductions in costs of LED light bulbs.
India is the first country in the world with a cooling action plan.
India aims to have 30% electric vehicle sales by 2030.
At the height of the pandemic, it sanctioned 12,000 MW of renewables capacity (15,000 MW since January).

Cooperation with the US is desired for the following reasons:

Creating a climate legacy: A convergence of interest between US and India will push others into action;
- Putting China on the spot: asking it to give details about its road to 2060 or funding of thermal power assets in the Belt and Road Initiative countries.
- Ratifying Kigali Amendment: to the Montreal Protocol, injecting new energy into the global phase-down of highly potent hydrofluorocarbons.
Bridging the supply-demand gap of clean-capital tech: and lower risk perceptions, promote state-level investment relationships, which could democratize and decentralize low-carbon pathways.
- While India’s demand stands at $30 billion, renewable investment is only $10-11 billion annually.
Leveraging R&D priorities: While the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020 has an explicit focus on low-carbon technologies, the US wants to invest $300 billion on climate-related R&D.
- A Global Green Hydrogen Alliance: by India and the US would bring global attention towards a breakthrough technology.
- Designing collaborative research programmes to develop a road map to net-zero emissions through carbon removal.
Collaborating on rising climate risks: through multilateralism centred around chronic risks like cyclones, forest fires causing havoc in both the nations.
- Deeper collaboration through Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, financing older infrastructure and designing new climate risk insurance schemes.