Hardeep Singh Puri meets US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry

Sep 14,2021

New Delhi: India’s petroleum and natural gas minister Hardeep Singh Puri met the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) John Kerry in New Delhi on Tuesday.

This meeting comes in the run-up to United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Glasgow later this year. Also, India is pushing for new age emission-free fuels such as green hydrogen in fertilizer production and petroleum refining. As part of its energy security strategy, India also plans to shortly kick-start its green hydrogen pathway by calling bids for 4 gigawatt (GW) electrolyser capacity.

India and United States have also added a fifth track on ‘emerging fuels’ as part of U.S.-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP). Energy security is at the core of India-US strategic energy partnership. In what may strengthen India’s climate commitment credentials, its emissions have been reduced by 28% over 2005 levels, against the target of 35% by 2030.

India on its part has also urged the US to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA), co-founded by India and France. This comes at a time when there hasn’t been much traction on the Green Climate Fund set up to provide developing nations $100 billion annually by 2020 to counter climate change.

According to the union government, India is the only major economy with actions in line to keep global warming below 2°C of pre-industrial levels and the only G20 country whose energy transition is consonant with this goal. This visit comes in the backdrop of India resisting the pressure of declaring a net zero emission goal. Instead, India has called out nations on their carbon neutral intent announcements and termed its as ‘meaningless’.