India And US To Revamp Existing Strategic Energy Cooperation Framework To Promote Clean Energy

In a bid to further strenghten the bilateral engagement across sectors, India and the United States (US) have decided to revamp the existing energy cooperation framework between the two nations to focus more on clean energy, reports Hindustan Times.

The revamping of the energy cooperation framework would be done keeping advanced US technology and the rapidly growing Indian energy market in mind. The revamp will reflect the new priorities set by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden.

US' Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday (29 March) held a virtual introductory meeting.

As per a Petroleum Ministry statement, the two leaders agreed to prioritise greater collaboration in the clean energy sector, such as biofuels, carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), hydrogen production and carbon sequestration, through technology exchange, joint research and development (R&D) through Partnership to Advance Clean Energy Research (PACE-R).

The leaders also planned to hold the third meeting of the revamped Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP) at an early date.

They decided to intensify the efforts to take advantage of the complementarities of both the countries - advanced US technologies and rapidly growing India’s energy market - for a win-win situation through a cleaner energy route with low carbon pathways, the statement said.

Meanwhile, it should also be noted that the previous two meetings of the SEP were held under the Trump administration tenure, and the two focussed more on American fossil fuels than on the reduction of carbon footprint. The first such meeting of the SEP took place on 17 April 2018, followed by another meeting on 17 July last year.