In the run-up to United States President Barack Obama’s visit to India, observers had hoped that the two countries would produce a significant set of targets on working to contain climate change.
Instead, the document they eventually released simply rehashed points already made during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in September and a renewal of commitments made during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure.
“To further support the achievement of our ambitious climate and clean energy goals, the United States and India have pledged to enhance our cooperation in this area,” their joint statement said.
In the end, Obama was unable to extract a commitment from India on climate change like the one had obtained on his visit to China in November. The US president had got Beijing to promise for the first time to stop its carbon emissions from growing by 2030. Obama had hoped to repeat that feat in India to lay the groundwork for a United Nations conference on climate change in Paris this December.
At the press conference that Obama and Modi addressed on Sunday, one of the two questions asked was about whether Modi felt any pressure to make a commitment similar to China’s. Modi maintained that India was a sovereign country and any pressure it faced was due to a larger responsibility to the world.
India's position
India has long pointed out that its per capita emissions are nowhere near that of either China or the US. While India is ranked fourth globally on overall emissions, its per capita figure places it closer to 140.
“China, to be honest, has not put much on the table,” said Navroz Dubash, an analyst with the Centre for Policy Researchs. “It has promised peak emissions in 2030, but has not mentioned what level this might be. India will have more credibility if we commit only to what we are going to do.”
At the global agreement on climate change to be signed at the Paris conference in December, countries will set clear targets towards reducing emissions. But as the Business Standard reported, the US refused to add a commitment to the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, which eases the pressure on developing countries to reduce their emissions.
Creating a market
Instead of setting climate targets, the Indo-US joint statement was actually oriented towards deepening investments in the country. It laid an emphasis on creating market conditions for renewable energy. It is highly likely, therefore, that more deals like the one between Adani Enterprises and SunEdison Inc are in the offing. On January 11, these two companies agreed to invest $4 billion in a solar photovoltaic cell manufacturing facility in Gujarat.
An American field investment officer will be stationed in India to facilitate investments and a trade mission in February is expected to increase collaboration between the countries. It is not clear whether these investments will benefit American companies looking to expand their markets or Indian companies wanting to increase their capacity.
The US made a fivefold increase in its commitment to energy research in the two countries: from $25 million for five years starting 2009 to $125 million for the same period beginning 2015. It will work with Indian companies to develop climate resilience tools at a micro level, something not stated before.
Cutting hydrofluorocarbons
Other announcements in the statement were not particularly new. As announced in September, the Export Import Bank is working with the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency to examine projects of up to $1 billion.
Also making a reappearance in the statement was India’s commitment to reducing hydrofluorocarbons, which lead to global warming. India had already committed to this twice in 2013 and 2014, but according to Jairam Ramesh, bureaucrats in the Ministry of Environment and Forests had stalled the first agreement.
India has actually moved on this between September and now. In November, it made the dramatic move of staying quiet during a United Nations discussion on greenhouse gasses. Before that, it had always led the opposition to any discussion on the subject.
Finally, three goals were mentioned that had not appeared in any bilateral document before: cooperating on smart grids and grid storage, air quality monitoring and reducing emissions of heavy-duty vehicles.
Key omission
However, both the September and January Indo-US statements omitted a key aspect in a declaration worked out by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and US Secretary of State John Kerry in July: a section on forest resource management.
This section listed priority areas for the US Agency for International Development, including supporting forest dependent communities, reducing forest degradation and “improving the lives of people who live at the base of the economic pyramid in India”.
The abandonment of this section was hardly surprising, considering that Modi’s environment ministry has been systematically diluting forest rights in a series of office memos and letters.
There was also no mention that India will ever begin to move towards replacing coal as its primary fuel for electricity generation. While India is deepening its investments in renewable energy, it has also been expanding its coal generation capacity at a greater pace.
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Instead, the document they eventually released simply rehashed points already made during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in September and a renewal of commitments made during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure.
“To further support the achievement of our ambitious climate and clean energy goals, the United States and India have pledged to enhance our cooperation in this area,” their joint statement said.
In the end, Obama was unable to extract a commitment from India on climate change like the one had obtained on his visit to China in November. The US president had got Beijing to promise for the first time to stop its carbon emissions from growing by 2030. Obama had hoped to repeat that feat in India to lay the groundwork for a United Nations conference on climate change in Paris this December.
At the press conference that Obama and Modi addressed on Sunday, one of the two questions asked was about whether Modi felt any pressure to make a commitment similar to China’s. Modi maintained that India was a sovereign country and any pressure it faced was due to a larger responsibility to the world.
India's position
India has long pointed out that its per capita emissions are nowhere near that of either China or the US. While India is ranked fourth globally on overall emissions, its per capita figure places it closer to 140.
“China, to be honest, has not put much on the table,” said Navroz Dubash, an analyst with the Centre for Policy Researchs. “It has promised peak emissions in 2030, but has not mentioned what level this might be. India will have more credibility if we commit only to what we are going to do.”
At the global agreement on climate change to be signed at the Paris conference in December, countries will set clear targets towards reducing emissions. But as the Business Standard reported, the US refused to add a commitment to the principle of common but differentiated responsibility, which eases the pressure on developing countries to reduce their emissions.
Creating a market
Instead of setting climate targets, the Indo-US joint statement was actually oriented towards deepening investments in the country. It laid an emphasis on creating market conditions for renewable energy. It is highly likely, therefore, that more deals like the one between Adani Enterprises and SunEdison Inc are in the offing. On January 11, these two companies agreed to invest $4 billion in a solar photovoltaic cell manufacturing facility in Gujarat.
An American field investment officer will be stationed in India to facilitate investments and a trade mission in February is expected to increase collaboration between the countries. It is not clear whether these investments will benefit American companies looking to expand their markets or Indian companies wanting to increase their capacity.
The US made a fivefold increase in its commitment to energy research in the two countries: from $25 million for five years starting 2009 to $125 million for the same period beginning 2015. It will work with Indian companies to develop climate resilience tools at a micro level, something not stated before.
Cutting hydrofluorocarbons
Other announcements in the statement were not particularly new. As announced in September, the Export Import Bank is working with the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency to examine projects of up to $1 billion.
Also making a reappearance in the statement was India’s commitment to reducing hydrofluorocarbons, which lead to global warming. India had already committed to this twice in 2013 and 2014, but according to Jairam Ramesh, bureaucrats in the Ministry of Environment and Forests had stalled the first agreement.
India has actually moved on this between September and now. In November, it made the dramatic move of staying quiet during a United Nations discussion on greenhouse gasses. Before that, it had always led the opposition to any discussion on the subject.
Finally, three goals were mentioned that had not appeared in any bilateral document before: cooperating on smart grids and grid storage, air quality monitoring and reducing emissions of heavy-duty vehicles.
Key omission
However, both the September and January Indo-US statements omitted a key aspect in a declaration worked out by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and US Secretary of State John Kerry in July: a section on forest resource management.
This section listed priority areas for the US Agency for International Development, including supporting forest dependent communities, reducing forest degradation and “improving the lives of people who live at the base of the economic pyramid in India”.
The abandonment of this section was hardly surprising, considering that Modi’s environment ministry has been systematically diluting forest rights in a series of office memos and letters.
There was also no mention that India will ever begin to move towards replacing coal as its primary fuel for electricity generation. While India is deepening its investments in renewable energy, it has also been expanding its coal generation capacity at a greater pace.
