India, US call for joint action to navigate global energy transition

Participating in the Ministerial meeting of the US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP), India and the US on Tuesday (July 18, 2023) emphasized on the need for joint action and collaboration to navigate the global energy transition.

The meeting was held between Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri and US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in New Delhi.

"Highlighting that India and the US represent the largest democracies, and the largest and fastest growing economies in the world, the sides underscored the importance of joint action and collaboration not only for bilateral progress but also for navigating the global energy transition," said a Joint Statement issued after the meeting.

The meeting follows the recent US visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi which saw the launch of the US-India New and Emerging Renewable Energy Technologies Action Platform (RETAP).

During Tuesday's meeting, both sides noted the growing importance of bilateral energy cooperation between the countries. They also underscoring the critical importance of bilateral clean energy engagement and the achievements of the SCEP in strengthening energy security, creating opportunities for clean energy innovation, addressing climate change and creating employment generation opportunities, the Joint Statement said.

The minister and the secretary welcomed cooperation between India and the United States to advance research, development and commercialisation of technologies in the emerging fuels arena, including bio-ethanol, renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuels, and other advanced biofuels as a unique and valued asset to the transition to a cleaner energy future.

India and the US also welcomed ongoing collaboration in such areas as:

• Modernizing the power system to improve reliability, resilience, flexibility, affordability, and sustainability of clean energy systems.

• Promoting energy efficiency and conservation, including in buildings, appliances, and the industrial sector.

• Reducing emissions across the oil and gas sector, including through examining methane abatement and transfer and deployment of technologies under voluntary and mutually agreeable terms

• Advancing emerging technologies to support electrification and decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors.

During the meetings, the two sides launched the South Asia Group for Energy (SAGE) to deepen the engagement between Indian agencies and US national laboratories to support research, analysis and capacity building activities such as building modelling capacity in Life Cycle Assessment of low carbon technologies and analytics on energy consumption in building sector.