US vows to help bring investment to assist India’s mitigation efforts

US special presidential envoy on climate change John Kerry on Tuesday said that America and other countries will join together in a “partnership” to bring “huge amount” of private sector investment in India to help its mitigation efforts, in return for “some changes by India (in) certain parts of what it does”.

Kerry was in India last week for a range of climate-related meetings with top leaders of the government, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ahead of a summit of 40 world leaders that President Joe Biden will host virtually next week. PM Modi is among those invited.

“We actually entered into a partnership there, where we will assist, along with other nations, to help bring finance — and when I say finance, I’m not talking about taxpayer dollar, I’m talking about the private sector investing in this deployment — which will require some changes by India (in) certain parts of what it does,” Kerry said in an interview to CNN Tuesday when asked if he got any commitments from India during the visit.

The investment will be “a huge amount”, he said, which “would allow India to keep track with 1.5 degrees centigrade limitation on the increase of the Earth’s temperature”.

Kerry did not specify which countries are likely to join the US and India and what will be that “huge amount”. Crucially, he also did not specify the changes that India will be required to make in its mitigation efforts.