Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s Visit to India

Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will travel to India from September 12-14, 2021 to engage with international counterparts on efforts to address the climate crisis. 

Key Points

• As a prelude to 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) meeting on climate change in Glasgow in November.
• Special Presidential Envoy Kerry will meet with Government of India counterparts and private sector leaders to discuss efforts to raise global climate ambition and speed India’s clean energy transition. 
• He will also launch the “Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD), part of U.S.-India Agenda 2030 Partnership that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden announced in April 2021 at Mr Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate
• While India is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, following China and the U.S., in absolute terms, it is not a major emitter in per capita terms relative to China and the U.S.

450-GW goal
Mr. Kerry’s visit “will bolster the United States’ bilateral and multilateral climate efforts” ahead of COP26, the State Department said. On his last visit to India, in April, he had said the U.S. was interested in ‘facilitating’ India achieve its 450-GW goal. 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) 

• The 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the UNFCCC was originally scheduled to take place from 9-19 November 2020, in Glasgow, UK.
• On 28 May 2020, the COP Bureau decided that it would take place from 1-12 November 2021, in Glasgow, UK.