John Kerry plans to visit India to advance climate talks

On Tuesday, US Special Envoy for Climate Change John Kerry and India's Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav spoke on the phone about the possibility of meeting soon to move the Climate Action and Finance Mobilisation Dialogue (CAFMD) forward, taking into view the unfolding Covid-19 situation.

Kerry is scheduled to meet with Yadav in New Delhi later this month or in February.

An official from the environment ministry said, “We cannot confirm the dates of the meeting because everything depends on the Covid-19 situation. But it will be organised shortly.”

They talked about a variety of topics during their phone chat on Tuesday, including Kerry's upcoming travel to Delhi, India's ambitious ambitions established at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last year, and the potential of India and America come together to accomplish those stated goals.

During their conversation, Yadav and Kerry focused on the CAFMD. They agreed to begin conversations as soon as feasible inside the framework of the climate dialogue.

The CAFMD was founded in September by New Delhi and Washington as part of cooperation aimed at attracting investment and technology in renewable energy projects. Under the India-US climate and renewable energy strategy 2030, one of the adopted tracks to finance initiatives for climate change mitigation is the climate conversation.

At the Glasgow climate change summit on November 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India's non-fossil energy capacity will reach 500GW by 2030, fulfilling 50% of the country's energy needs.

India will lower its overall anticipated carbon emissions by one billion tonnes between now and 2030, minimize the carbon intensity of its economy by 45 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, and achieve net-zero emissions by 2070, according to him. Modi stated that without enough climate money from industrialized countries, these bold initiatives would be unfeasible.