India Obtains G7 Nations' Support To Enhance Its Clean Energy Transition
Tuesday, 02 August 2022, 17:40 IST
The 48th G7 Summit, an international association of the world's `advanced' economies, was held last month in Schloss Elmau, Krün, Bavarian Alps, Germany. Group of Seven (G7) leaders met in the Schloss Elmau national monument, nestled in Germany's Bavarian Alps. Leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as the European Union, were present. Well, the goals of the G7 summits are to strengthen international economic and security policies and progressive discussion of crucial global issues such as climate change and gender equality. For the 2022 summit, the preliminary plan of G7 was the war in Ukraine and the requirement to `cement a united Western bloc' as per a senior fellow Stewart M Patrick of the Council on Foreign Relations. The discussions were focused on reducing Europe's dependency on Russian energy.
Presence Of India At The G7 Summit
As Germany hosted the G7 meeting, the German presidency set its programme `Progress towards an Equitable World' five primary goals: a sustainable planet, economic stability & transformation, healthy lives, investment in a better future and strong together. Germany also invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as leaders from Indonesia, South Africa, Senegal, and Argentina. These countries discussed climate change, energy, and other issues for the developing democratic nations like food security, health, counter-terrorism, gender equality, and democracy. With protesters in Bavaria clamoring against global inaction in the face of the imminent climate crisis, the leaders discussed the matter of climate change and energy with the guest countries.
Apart from the worldwide infrastructure initiative, the group decided to lend aid towards energy transition to India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Senegal in the form of Just Energy Transition Partnerships, which is already being implemented in South Africa. But at a time when energy prices were skyrocketing, it was a hard sell for the leaders to convince other nations to abandon their coal furnaces and gas pipelines. However, the three-day meeting concluded with a commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, even as they agreed to close collaboration with developing countries to boost clean energy and resilience through new initiatives, comprising its commitment to Just Energy Transition Partnership with India.
`Climate Club' Ties-Up Private & Public Sectors’
The German president has proposed the idea of a `climate club,' which, as with the net-zero and nature compact pledges, looks to build a global alliance among countries to deepen collaboration on delivering on their Paris Agreement pledges. The climate club would involve governments working with the private sector across three core pillars:
• Putting a price on pollution
• Greening heavy industry
• Increasing trade of low carbon products
To achieve an entirely or predominantly decarbonized electricity sector by 2035, the discussion pointed out that emission from coal power generation is the single most significant cause of global warming. The implications of 2035 power sector decarbonization mean phasing out coal power in G7 and EU member countries would avoid 1.9 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, which is more than the combined total CO2 emissions from all Southeast Asian countries.
On industrial decarbonization opportunities with G7, Deepak Sriram Krishnan, Associate Director, WRI India's Energy Program, said India could try and negotiate the transitions related to thermal power plants as well as coal mining. "A second area of transition, which is of critical importance for us, is our industrial sector, especially the MSMEs. Given that a significant number of them are exporting to markets like the G7 or are part of supply chains of companies, which may have their headquarters in the G7 countries. It would also be important to try and negotiate for financial flows and technology transfer for the industrial sector decarbonization as well".
On how G7 dragged its feet on climate action and commitment, Vaibhav Chaturvedi, Fellow, Council for Energy Environment & Water (CEEW), said, "Cooperation on climate change mitigation and adaptation was one of the important issues for the G7 discussions". India's ambitious mitigation targets warranted a solid commitment from the G7 countries on climate finance for India, through a Just Energy Transition Partnership. The outcome from the summit on this front has been disappointing.
Looks like rich countries are again dragging their feet, rather than acting fast to support India's ambition. "India will have to continue to ramp up pressure on the developed world to deliver fast on climate finance through various channels". In an edition of siliconindia, Syed Fahad, Executive Director, Golden Hatcheries, said, "With the alarming rise of global warming and its subsequent harmful effects on the climate, the homeostatic balance of the earth has reached its breaking point. It is high time for businesses to mend their ways by switching over to eco-friendly Energy sources".
Presence Of India At The G7 Summit
As Germany hosted the G7 meeting, the German presidency set its programme `Progress towards an Equitable World' five primary goals: a sustainable planet, economic stability & transformation, healthy lives, investment in a better future and strong together. Germany also invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as leaders from Indonesia, South Africa, Senegal, and Argentina. These countries discussed climate change, energy, and other issues for the developing democratic nations like food security, health, counter-terrorism, gender equality, and democracy. With protesters in Bavaria clamoring against global inaction in the face of the imminent climate crisis, the leaders discussed the matter of climate change and energy with the guest countries.
To achieve an entirely or predominantly decarbonized electricity sector by 2035, the discussion pointed out that emission from coal power generation is the single most significant cause of global warming
Apart from the worldwide infrastructure initiative, the group decided to lend aid towards energy transition to India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Senegal in the form of Just Energy Transition Partnerships, which is already being implemented in South Africa. But at a time when energy prices were skyrocketing, it was a hard sell for the leaders to convince other nations to abandon their coal furnaces and gas pipelines. However, the three-day meeting concluded with a commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, even as they agreed to close collaboration with developing countries to boost clean energy and resilience through new initiatives, comprising its commitment to Just Energy Transition Partnership with India.
`Climate Club' Ties-Up Private & Public Sectors’
The German president has proposed the idea of a `climate club,' which, as with the net-zero and nature compact pledges, looks to build a global alliance among countries to deepen collaboration on delivering on their Paris Agreement pledges. The climate club would involve governments working with the private sector across three core pillars:
• Putting a price on pollution
• Greening heavy industry
• Increasing trade of low carbon products
To achieve an entirely or predominantly decarbonized electricity sector by 2035, the discussion pointed out that emission from coal power generation is the single most significant cause of global warming. The implications of 2035 power sector decarbonization mean phasing out coal power in G7 and EU member countries would avoid 1.9 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, which is more than the combined total CO2 emissions from all Southeast Asian countries.
On industrial decarbonization opportunities with G7, Deepak Sriram Krishnan, Associate Director, WRI India's Energy Program, said India could try and negotiate the transitions related to thermal power plants as well as coal mining. "A second area of transition, which is of critical importance for us, is our industrial sector, especially the MSMEs. Given that a significant number of them are exporting to markets like the G7 or are part of supply chains of companies, which may have their headquarters in the G7 countries. It would also be important to try and negotiate for financial flows and technology transfer for the industrial sector decarbonization as well".
On how G7 dragged its feet on climate action and commitment, Vaibhav Chaturvedi, Fellow, Council for Energy Environment & Water (CEEW), said, "Cooperation on climate change mitigation and adaptation was one of the important issues for the G7 discussions". India's ambitious mitigation targets warranted a solid commitment from the G7 countries on climate finance for India, through a Just Energy Transition Partnership. The outcome from the summit on this front has been disappointing.
Looks like rich countries are again dragging their feet, rather than acting fast to support India's ambition. "India will have to continue to ramp up pressure on the developed world to deliver fast on climate finance through various channels". In an edition of siliconindia, Syed Fahad, Executive Director, Golden Hatcheries, said, "With the alarming rise of global warming and its subsequent harmful effects on the climate, the homeostatic balance of the earth has reached its breaking point. It is high time for businesses to mend their ways by switching over to eco-friendly Energy sources".
