New Delhi: India has a red-hot investment opportunity for its clean energy transition, John Kerry, Special Presidential envoy for climate said on Thursday during his remark at World Sustainable Summit 2021. He also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his efforts and commitment to address the challenge posed by climate change.
The official strongly highlighted that Modi is indisputably a world leader in the deployment of renewable energy and his leadership of the International Solar Alliance, which External Affairs Minister Jaishankar referred to, is critical for not just India, but for other dynamic, growing economies in the world.
“We believe India can be one of the most critical transitional countries in this entire endeavour. I am confident that just as we have worked very closely on any number of issues in these last years, our two nations—the world’s two biggest democracies—have a great deal to gain from joining hands in our global leadership and confronting the climate crisis to meet this moment”, Kerry reiterated.
The top US official said that he intends to work very closely with Indian leaders including Prime Minister Modi and EAM Jaishankar.
Looking forward to visiting India soon, Kerry said that the prime minister has made a very important contribution to this dialogue.
Needless to say, India is deeply committed to this challenge and it has been for a considerable number of years, he said.
He says, India today, leads the world with the cheapest solar energy anywhere on the Earth. In most countries, renewables energies are already cheaper than fossil fuel power plants. Global investment in new clean power capacity is set to exceed ten trillion dollars through mid-century—more than six times the investment in other options. Other clean energy sectors, from hydrogen to electric vehicles, also represent multi-trillion-dollar markets in the decades to come.
President Biden is very clearly committed to that, but he also understands that even if the United States or India or any other country could go to zero emissions tomorrow, that’s not enough. Roughly 90 per cent of the world’s emissions come from somewhere other than our country, and, you know, about seventy per cent come from somewhere other than China, even, Kerry points out.
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The top US-official underlined that Prime Minister Modi’s announcement of a target of 450 gigawatts of renewables by 2030 is a strong, terrific example of how to power a growing economy with clean energy, and it’s going to be one of the most important contributions in the world because India today is already the third-largest emitter in the world behind my country, the United States, and of course, China, which is the largest in the world at about thirty per cent of all emissions.
Referring to a special report by International Energy Agency on India, Kerry said that India’s down payment on the clean energy transition puts it on pace to become the global market leader in solar and storage by 2040. “And thanks to your rapid scale-up, it’s already cheaper to build solar in India than anywhere else in the world. That kind of urgency is exactly what we need to confront the crisis that we confront today”, he stated.
Moreover, in his speech, Kerry made it clear that India is a key partner of the US under the Biden Administration and would take it over from where the relationship was left by the previous Trump Administration.
“By 2030, the International Energy Agency forecasts that if India drives even more aggressively towards this clean energy transition, it will create half a million additional jobs than business as usual would create. Indian industry is already stepping up and showing leadership. I was very pleased to hear that dozens of India’s biggest companies recently signed a declaration on climate change, pledging to go carbon neutral”, Kerry added.
