Context: Recently, India and the US are launching a clean energy partnership initiative to mobilise investments and enable green collaborations under "India-US Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership" at the Leaders’ Summit on Climate hosted by the US.

Background

• India’s per capita carbon footprint is 60 per cent lower than the global average and it is because our lifestyle is still rooted in sustainable traditional practices.
• India has made an ambitious commitment of achieving the renewable energy target of 450 gigahertz by 2030.
• The Nationally Defined Contributions (NDCs) are each country’s goals towards achieving the Paris Agreement target of limiting rising temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius.
• The US pledged to cut emissions by 50 to 52 per cent of its 2005 levels by 2030 which is double the 2015 goal set by former President Barack Obama.

What is India-US Clean Energy Initiative?

• It will help in mobilising investments, demonstrate clean technologies, and enable green collaborations.
• It will proceed along two main tracks i.e. the Strategic Clean Energy Partnership and the Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue, which will build on and subsume a range of existing processes.
• India and the United States aim to demonstrate how the world can align swift climate action with inclusive and resilient economic development.

About Leaders’ Summit on Climate

• It is a two-day virtual conference hosted by United States.
• It will serve as an opportunity to release their countries climate ambition and how they will take action to reduce emissions.

The main objectives of this summit are

• Get the world's major economies to reduce emission in this decade while also getting the public and private sector involvement.
• Show how climate action can have economic and social benefits and build new businesses and industries.
• Using the technology available to adapt to climate change but also reduce emissions.
• Use nature-based solutions to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
• Protect lives and livelihoods by finding ways to adapt to climate change.
• The world's top five highest emitters are China, The United States, India, Russia and Japan.

Biden has announced that the US will double its public climate financing development to developing countries and triple public financing for climate application in developing countries by 2024.

• The Chinese President has promoted its “green Belt and Road Initiative” and announced efforts to “strictly control coal-fired power generation projects” and phase down coal consumption.
• China has pledged net zero emissions by 2060.
• The British Prime Minister has said that they were first country to pass legislation for net zero and announced a target of 78 per cent emission reductions by 2035 (compared to 1990 levels).
• The Japan Prime Minister has announced that Japan aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and that it will cut its emissions by 46% over 2013 levels by 2030.