India arranges funding, access to green technology to reduce emissions

New Delhi has partnered with UK and Denmark for finance and technology. India has started talks with the US on Climate Action and Finance Mobilization during the US Presidential Envoy on US President John Kerry’s visit in August.

India’s efforts to partner for green finance and technology gained momentum after Kerry’s first visit in April.

Analysts, coupled with initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance launched in 2015 by India and France and the National Hydrogen Mission (NHM) announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, are expected to put the country in good stead. Said when leaders of nearly 200 countries gather in Glasgow for the 31 October-12 November summit.

Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal said, “India is making such programs, which will result in positive results during the discussion at COP26.”

“The countries we are talking with will help ease the tangible pressure on India from some lobbying as one of the three major greenhouse gas emitters, our per capita consumption of energy and enough carbon for India. Keeping the space requirement in mind, as we move forward in our development,” Sibal said.

India, the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China, has declared an “aspirational target” of generating 450 gigawatts (GW) of energy from renewable sources by 2030.

But New Delhi has been urged to declare it in Glasgow as an updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) that will force India to stick to the target.

India’s current NDC, presented in 2015, says it will ensure an emission intensity target of 33% to 35% below 2005 levels. New Delhi had also promised to ensure that about 40% of its installed power capacity comes from renewable energy. This is a goal that India says it is on track to achieve.

With a UN panel warning in August that limiting global warming to 1.5 °C or 2 °C above pre-industrial levels – as pledged by countries in Paris in 2015 – there was an immediate and massive reduction in greenhouse gases. Without reduction would be “beyond reach”. The pressure on countries like India to update their NDCs is likely to increase.

Sibal said 450GW of energy from renewable sources is an “ambitious target” as it is based on the “assumption that commitments by countries to provide $100 billion in climate financing and technology availability” will be met.

“If climate change is an international problem, the international community has to take responsibility for India and others to meet their goals under optimal conditions,” Sibal said.

India has repeatedly raised the issue of finance and technologies to help developing countries transition from fossil fuels. At an event last week, Environment Minister Bhupinder Yadav underscored the vulnerability of developing countries, including India, to the effects of climate change and stressed that COP26 should focus on climate finance and the transfer of technology from developed countries.

Climate financing was a major theme at the eighth US-India Economic and Financial Partnership, which brought together Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Washington last week.

“We agreed that public finance, when combined with enabling policies, can boost private finance. We reaffirmed the collective developed country goal of raising $100 billion annually for developing countries from public and private sources, said a joint statement after the Sitaraman-Yelen talks.

But speaking to reporters later, Sitharaman said how the $100 billion annual commitment would be measured and the associated technology transfer remained unanswered, according to news reports.

Meanwhile, the Quad countries—the US, India, Japan and Australia—had said in September that they would step up efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, fueling speculation that New Delhi would soon have a May announce updated NDC. . However, government officials did not comment on the matter.