Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday announced the launch of the joint India-US climate and clean energy Agenda 2030 partnership at the virtual summit hosted by US President Joe Biden.
“As a climate-responsible developing country, India welcomes partners to create templates of sustainable development in India. These can also help other developing countries, who need affordable access to green finance and clean technologies,” the Prime Minister said.
“That is why, President Biden and I are launching the "India-US climate and clean energy Agenda 2030 partnership”. Together, we will help mobilise investments, demonstrate clean technologies, and enable green collaborations,” PM Modi explained.
The Indian Prime Minister and US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry had held a discussion in New Delhi, in the run-up to the summit, on finding ways to deepen the India-US partnership on climate and clean energy.
PM Modi in his speech at the summit exhorted world leaders to take “concrete action at high speed” to combat the impending disaster of climate change. Citing the great Indian monk Swami Vivekananda’s advice : "Arise, awake and stop not until the goal is reached,” the PM said, “Let us make this a Decade of Action against climate change.”
He said India’s per capita carbon footprint is 60% lower than global average because the lifestyle of its people is still rooted in sustainable traditional practices. “I want to emphasise the importance of lifestyle change. The guiding philosophy of back-to-basics must be an important pillar of strategy for the post-Covid era,” PM Modi observed.
The fact that humanity is battling against the Covid pandemic right now is a timely reminder that the grave threat of climate change has not disappeared. The world needs to take large scale action with global scope in order to avert another human catastrophe, the PM pointed out.
He also said that India has encouraged several global initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilience, PM Modi said the world needed to “go back to basics” in order to save the environment.
The Indian Prime Minister was the second national leader invited by the US President to speak on the opening day of the two-day virtual climate summit, after Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Biden delivered the inaugural address which was then addressed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was the next leader to speak after PM Modi.
President Biden, on his part, outlined an aggressive target which, he said, “will set America on a path of a net-zero emissions economy by no later than 2050”. The White House has now set an ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% which is nearly twice the target set by the Obama administration in 2015.
