[In recent months, Kerry has shuttled between China and India, the world’s No. 1
and No. 3 largest carbon emitters, as he seeks commitments that Beijing will
accelerate its existing timetables for lowering carbon emissions and India will
announce a deadline for reaching net-zero carbon emissions. British officials
have also been appealing to India, with little success, to pledge a phaseout of
emissions, preferably by 2050 or 2060.]
By Gerry Shih
There was “progress” in nudging
India toward announcing a timetable in the coming weeks for reaching net-zero carbon
emissions, Kerry said in New Delhi, where he is meeting with senior Indian
officials in preparation for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to
Washington on Sept. 24. Several weeks after that, in late October, world
leaders are scheduled to gather in Glasgow, Scotland, for a conference known as
COP26 that is considered pivotal for the fate of the planet.
“I think a number of countries will
step up in the next couple weeks, before the COP or at the COP, but they need
to have the privilege of deciding when and where to [make announcements],”
Kerry said in a brief interview in the Indian capital. “We’re making progress,
and my hope is the next six weeks will concentrate people’s minds. Nobody
appreciates being pushed around, and I’m not here to do that.”
Several world leaders “are ready to
step up and have said they’ll announce new plans,” Kerry added, while declining
to offer specifics.
In recent months, Kerry has shuttled between China and India, the world’s No. 1
and No. 3 largest carbon emitters, as he seeks commitments that Beijing will
accelerate its existing timetables for lowering carbon emissions and India will
announce a deadline for reaching net-zero carbon emissions. British officials
have also been appealing to India, with little success, to pledge a phaseout of
emissions, preferably by 2050 or 2060.
International researchers say there
is no way to limit global warming to an average of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7
degrees Fahrenheit) or less without significant concessions from India and
China, which are both still building coal-fired power plants. As an urbanizing
country, India generates more than 70 percent of its electricity from coal, and
it is expected to add new power-generation capacity equal to that of the entire
European Union by 2050 to meet its electricity needs, according to the International
Energy Agency.
So far, Kerry has failed to secure
concessions on two trips to India since April, with New Delhi arguing that
advanced, postindustrial economies need to provide more financing and
technology transfers, and that ambitious climate commitments are unfair for a
developing country that has some of the lowest carbon emissions when measured
on a per-person basis. Kerry’s efforts this month to persuade China to do more
were stymied by Chinese demands that Washington back off from human rights and
technology sanctions.
Kerry said Monday that the United
States will set up a financing program with India to attract the international
investment sought by New Delhi, which has set a target of deploying 450
gigawatts of renewable-energy capacity by 2030. Large U.S. banks this year
committed to providing $4 trillion in green financing, Kerry said, and
“investors are now flocking to clean energy.”
Indian officials argue that even
though private-sector banks and private equity funds are starting to put money
into Indian solar farms and hydropower projects that yield returns, Western
government agencies still have not provided many of the cash grants they have
promised for more-difficult tasks such as upgrading India’s sprawling
electrical grid. India’s environment minister, Bhupender Yadav, told reporters
Monday that he hoped dialogue with the United States would lead Washington to
provide more concessionary grants.
Kerry said the U.S. International
Development Finance Corporation, a federal institution that provides financing
for developing countries, committed to investing $500 million in India last
year and has another half-billion in the project pipeline. And he repeated a
2009 Obama administration pledge to help mobilize a $100 billion fund for poor
nations — even though the 2020 time frame has passed without the fund
materializing.
New U.S. announcements about the
fund could come in late October, before COP26, Kerry said. He is expected to
hold one-on-one meetings with Modi in Washington next week to make another
pitch about emissions targets.
Tim Buckley, director of energy
finance studies for Australia and South Asia at the Institute for Energy
Economics and Financial Analysis, said the launch of a U.S.-backed green-energy
financing scheme would be highly welcomed “assuming the quantum of U.S. funds
is in any way reflective of the enormous opportunity” in India.
India still needs $500 billion in
renewable-energy generation and grid infrastructure to meet its 2030 targets,
Buckley estimated. Much of that capital could come from private sources, he
added while encouraging the U.S. government to also chip in.
“The world desperately needs to
accelerate this deployment, and patient public capital from the U.S. and other
wealthy countries would be a very positive catalyst to help India help the
world,” he said.
Read more:
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