India reaffirms commitment to pursue green path to growth

India has reaffirmed its commitment to pursue a green path to growth as leaders of 20 countries and the European Union gathered here for the seventh Clean Energy and the inaugural Mission Innovation ministerials.

At the inaugural Mission Innovation (MI) Ministerial, ministers from all Mission Innovation partners released their respective governments' plans to double clean energy research and development funding over five years.

The Indian delegation at the ministerial is being led by Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan.

Ministers welcomed the European Commission on behalf of the European Union as the 21st partner in the initiative.

At the inaugural Mission Innovation, the 21 partners each pledged to seek a doubling in their governmental and state-directed clean energy research and development investment over five years, reaching around a combined US 30 billion per year by 2021.
 
These efforts under Mission Innovation represent an unprecedented acceleration of research and development efforts for innovative clean energy technologies.

Ministers also met with leaders of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition and other leading energy investors, underscoring the critical link between government innovation and entrepreneurship to bring affordable clean energy technologies to market.

"I am pleased to note that Ministers have endorsed the recommendations made by MI countries and subgroups will now work together to lead the objective of Mission Innovation," Vardhan said.

"I would like to reaffirm India's commitment to pursue green path to growth through Research Innovation and Joint Collaboration," he said.

During the meeting, Vardhan announced India's current investment ($72 million) and doubling plan ($145 million) in Clean Energy Research.

A formal announcement on new joint collaborations with Mission Innovation Countries was also made by him.

India has launched a number of collaborative research and development efforts to pursue research in solar energy, energy efficiency, advanced biofuels, electrical transmission and storage with the US, the UK, Australia, Norway, South Korea and many other countries.

Vardhan also announced expanding India's collaboration with the UK through setting up of a Joint virtual Clean Energy Centre to address the challenges to intermitting solar energy and launching a new Research Track on Smart Energy Grids and Energy Storage under Indo-US PACE-R (Partnership to Advance Clean Energy -- Research).

During the ministerial, each government also provided information on national clean energy needs, plans, priorities, and supporting policies and programmes for clean energy innovation.

A series of webinars over the coming months will provide an in-depth look on a country-by-country basis.
"Our support for Mission Innovation is crucial to funding the basic scientific research and development that will underpin the advanced clean energy solutions needed to combat climate change in the 21st century," said US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.

"These technologies will help drive down adoption costs to grow low-carbon economies and create an entirely new markets for the solutions that will reduce heat trapping emissions," he said.

European Commission Vice President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said scaling up clean energy innovation is key to the success of the European Energy Union and to the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

It also represents a major global economic and industrial opportunity.

"Mission Innovation, therefore, coheres perfectly with our upcoming research, innovation and competitiveness strategy," he said.

Meanwhile, at the seventh Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM7) three new global campaigns were launched -- the Advanced Cooling Challenge, the Energy Management Campaign and the Corporate Sourcing of Renewables Campaign.

The countries also agreed to launch a new phase of collaboration -- "CEM 2.0".

As the first major gathering of global energy ministers since last December's Paris Agreement, CEM7 and the MI Ministerial brought together clean energy leaders from around the world.

This meeting represented a crucial step towards accelerating both the deployment of today's clean energy technologies and innovation for the technologies of the future.

Ministers committed to ambitious action on implementing policies and solutions to meet countries' climate and clean energy goals.

"CEM7 and MI are major driving forces for how the US and global community can achieve the commitments made under the Paris Agreement," said Moniz.

"The outcome of these two meetings can play an important role in deploying clean energy technologies today and developing tomorrow's solutions that will facilitate the world's transition to a clean energy economy," he said.

Canada, China, India, Saudi Arabia and the United States announced to join the Advanced Cooling Challenge and are committed to promote greater use of cost-effective, energy efficient air conditioning and refrigeration equipment through appliance efficiency policies and programmes.

Further the ClimateWorks Foundation announced a strategic alignment of their philanthropic programmes with CEM programmes that support power sector decarbonisation in Mexico, India, China and other CEM countries.