On the heels of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s three day stay in India, President Joe Biden sent another top aide for high level meetings in New Delhi. This highlights the importance placed on India by the Biden-Harris Administration.
Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They discussed U.S.-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.
Special Presidential Envoy Kerry and Prime Minister Modi affirmed that given the two nations’ shared desire to combat climate change and complementary strengths, the United States 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.
In his remarks in India, Kerry said that it is a “very strong example” for using clean energy. “That kind of urgency is exactly what we need to confront global climate change,” he added.
In addition to meeting with Prime Minister Modi, Special Presidential Envoy 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; Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan; 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. Finally, Special Presidential Envoy Kerry engaged in roundtable discussions with business and civil society leaders, including a roundtable with women leaders in energy and climate change.
Kerry highlighted President 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. Special Presidential Envoy Kerry shared that the United States 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.
There was broad consensus on the value of enhanced bilateral cooperation across multiple areas, including mobilizing 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 urbanization and agriculture.
