NEW DELHI: Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday co-chaired a virtual Ministerial meeting with US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to launch the revamped India-US Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP).
The SCEP is launched in accordance with US-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden at the Leaders Summit on Climate held in April this year, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas informed in a statement.
The SCEP organises inter-governmental engagement across five pillars of cooperation; Power and Energy Efficiency; Responsible Oil and Gas; Renewable Energy; Sustainable Growth and Emerging Fuels.
Puri and Granholm also reviewed the progress, major accomplishments, and prioritized new areas for cooperation under the various pillars, the statement read. Puri emphasised that the revamped clean energy partnership will intensify the efforts from both sides to take advantage of the complementarities that exist between the US and India.
The two sides also announced the addition of the fifth pillar on emerging fuels, which signals joint resolve to promote cleaner energy fuels.
A new India-US task force on biofuels was also announced to build on the scope of work on cooperation in the biofuels sector.
Meanwhile, the US Secretary also lauded India’s renewable energy target of 450 GW by 2030 and offered to closely collaborate in the realization of this target by India, the statement from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas read.
Both sides have planned to strengthen the electric grid in India to support large-scale integration of renewables, including through smart grids, energy storage, flexible resources, and distributed energy resources, and ensure reliable and resilient grid operations, as well as promoting energy efficiency and conservation measures.
The two sides also announced the rechristening of the Gas Task Force to the India-US Low Emissions Gas Task Force, which would continue to forge collaboration between U.S. and Indian companies on innovative projects to support India’s vision of a gas-based economy. The two sides also agreed to continue to develop better understandings on methane abetment under this Task Force.
Both sides have initiated the institutionalization of the India Energy Modeling Forum with the constitution of Six Task Forces for carrying out research and modelling in different areas.
Joint Committees have been set up to deliberate on Energy Data Management, Low Carbon Technologies and Just Transition in Coal Sector.
Building on the success of the first phase, the two sides agreed to expand the scope of the work to include smart grid and grid storage as part of the second phase of the Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE)-R initiative anchored on the Indian side by the Department of Science & Technology.
The meeting also reviewed the progress of the India-US Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation. (ANI)
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