Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a great pleasure to be back here in Hyderabad, a city rich with history that looks toward the future. I’m here today to discuss how the United States and India are responding to what Secretary of State John Kerry has called the “defining challenge of our generation” – climate change. Tackling this menace will take our brightest and most talented minds and I see those in the room today.
I want to give a special thanks to our lead organizer, the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC). Vice President Steve Nicholas, Asia Director Brent Habig, thank you for braving the heat and coming out all the way from Vermont. Dr. Babu Ambat, from the Center for Environment and Development, thank you as well for your partnership and support. I also want to acknowledge my fellow speakers, including Dr. Ajay Mathur from The Energy & Resources Institute. He was a very constructive partner in Paris. I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Consul General Michael Mullins and his great team at the U.S. Consulate in Hyderabad. Between handling a truly massive visa operation and responding to my taskers from Delhi, Consulate Hyderabad has done tremendous work supporting U.S.-India cooperation on clean energy and climate change.
The Challenge Before Us
A decade ago former Vice President Al Gore made a passionate appeal to Americans and the global community about the need to take concerted action against climate change. What is at stake, he said, is our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization. This is a moral issue, it is your time to seize this issue, it is our time to secure our future.
How far have we come in ten years? The global community has indeed seized this issue. Public awareness is growing and citizens around the world are increasingly demanding action from governments and industry. According to recent surveys, nearly 65 percent of Americans view climate change as a serious threat and similarly more than 70 percent of Indians cited climate change as a leading global concern. A decade ago, reaching international consensus on an ambitious climate accord would have been deemed impossible. But in Paris last December, the global community, thanks in part to Indian leadership, did exactly that. 196 countries came together to reach a historic agreement that seeks to limit global warming to between 1.5 and 2 degrees centigrade from pre-industrial levels.
In April, leaders from around the world, including Environment Minister Javadekar, gathered in New York for the signing ceremony. Secretary Kerry signed the Agreement with his two year old granddaughter sitting on his lap, an image that captured perfectly why it is so important to take action and what is at stake for posterity.
Despite the progress we have made, there is still much more to be done. Climate change knows no political borders. Some portray it as a trade-off between development and economic growth and this perspective often makes it politically difficult to take bold actions. Even now, some segments of our respective societies fail to recognize the impact human activity is having on our planet and how our futures are being jeopardized. The facts, however, are clear and the costs of climate change are already evident.
Written by hundreds of scientists from every corner of the world, the most recent Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) unequivocally states that human influence on the climate system is real and recent emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in the history of humankind. According to NASA, 2015 was the hottest year on record. In fact, of the hottest years on record, 15 out of 17 have occurred since 2000.
Ongoing deforestation and poor land management is responsible for nearly a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Each day, greenhouse gases emitted by human activities trap the same amount of heat energy as would be released by 400,000 atomic bombs.
This excess heat and carbon dioxide are both acidifying and warming the oceans, destroying marine ecosystems and causing more extreme and varied weather patterns. This has huge implications for Asia, where nearly one-third of the world’s population relies on the monsoon for their livelihoods. Around the world, we’re already witnessing extreme floods and long droughts that scientists warn may become more frequent as our climate continues to change. Take a look at these pictures from Madurai and California to see what I mean.
One study published this past March concluded that during the course of the 20th century, sea levels rose more than in any of the previous 27 centuries. Just last week, Secretary Kerry made his first visit to the Arctic to see firsthand how quickly ice sheets are melting.
If greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, sea levels are predicted to rise by five to six feet by the end of this century. These simulations demonstrate the catastrophic impact such a scenario would have on coastal cities like Mumbai and New York. Secretary Kerry will discuss the challenge of rising sea levels among other issues when he hosts the Our Ocean conference in Washington in September.
Climate change is not just an environmental challenge; it is a national security issue. Changes in climate could potentially damage critical infrastructure, create shortages of food and water, and lead to mass migrations and disease outbreaks. Receding ice sheets in the Arctic and the opening of new sea passages raise concerns about maritime security and freedom of navigation. As Secretary Kerry recently stated: “Global threats like terrorism, epidemics, poverty, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction – all are challenges that know no borders – the reality is that climate change ranks right up there with every single one of them.”
However, all is not gloom and doom. The future of our global home is not yet preordained. We already have much of the requisite knowledge and technology to reshape our energy future, but we need to act quickly and decisively if we are to reach the required goal of reducing global emissions tenfold from today’s levels.
What We Are Doing Now
Prime Minister Modi and President Obama clearly recognize the grave threat posed by climate change, and the importance of our two countries working together to combat it. “Protection of environment and caring for the planet”, said the Prime Minister in his recent address to the U.S. Congress “is central to our shared vision of a just world.”
President Obama fully shares the Prime Minister’s vision. He recognizes the U.S. role in creating this problem and our responsibility to take action. That’s why he has undertaken extraordinary efforts to transform America’s energy future and galvanize the international community. Utilizing the provisions of the Clean Air Act, the Obama Administration is reducing emissions from transportation and power plants, which together account for more than 60 percent of the greenhouse gases emitted in the United States. Fuel-economy standards for American cars and trucks are at their highest levels since the invention of the automobile and are among the most stringent in the world. The notion clean development and economic growth are mutually exclusive is a false one – the U.S. economy today is 60 percent larger than it was two decades ago while its carbon emissions have returned to the levels of that time and are on a downward slope. This is our 2025 target.
These domestic efforts have been coupled with U.S. actions abroad, which culminated in the historic Paris Agreement last December. While President Obama has been a relentless driver for global action, he also recognizes the moral obligation of developing countries to bring reliable power to those without it. Standing next to Prime Minister Modi and Bill Gates in Paris, the President stated we cannot forge a climate agreement that permanently resigns the 300 million people in India lacking electricity to a dim future. That’s why he partnered with Prime Minister Modi to launch Mission Innovation, a public-private partnership involving 20 nations that has pledged to double spending on clean energy research and development by 2020. I am confident these resources will help develop new practices and technologies to reduce global carbon emissions while also allowing countries like India to meet their developmental goals.
Prime Minister Modi’s 175 GW target for renewable energy deployments is among the most ambitious in the world and the United States has done a great deal to support this effort. For instance, through the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy, or PACE, we have already mobilized nearly $2.5 billion for clean energy projects in India. Another $1.4 billion in climate finance for solar projects was announced during the Prime Minister’s visit. India’s success is critical to global success and I firmly believe clean energy will be one of the biggest growth opportunities in the years ahead. Between now and 2035, investment in the global energy sector is expected to reach nearly $17 trillion. That’s more than the entire GDP of China and India combined.
India’s solar sector has witnessed spectacular growth in recent years; just last week a 648 MW solar plant – among the world’s largest – went online in Tamil Nadu. The United States is actively supporting India’s solar targets through the Government of India led International Solar Alliance and bilateral initiatives, such as rooftop solar cooperation and solar resource mapping. American companies are also playing a key role. For example, 8minutenergy Renewables is supporting solar photovoltaic projects totaling 4 GW, which are expected to result in over 10,000 Indian jobs. SunLink Corporation is partnering with Indian companies with a deployment target of 1.4 GW over the next five years.
The United States and India are also working to skill up long-term capacity to deal with climate change. In March, I helped launch the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship, which will enable Indian PhD students and post-doctoral researchers to work with their American counterparts on climate research and education. The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune is working with the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on developing high-resolution seasonal and long-term climate forecasts. This will help provide critical information to local decision makers so they can prepare for monsoons decades in the future.
Our cooperation on climate mitigation is even extending into space. NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization are working together to develop a Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite that will observe and measure some of the planet’s most complex processes, including ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse, and natural hazards. The data gathered from this mission will help build climate resilience and may one day potentially save lives.
Finally, in what marks a major milestone for India’s energy future, the Indian government recently reached an agreement with the Westinghouse Electric Company to build six nuclear reactors in Andhra Pradesh. [Slide 9 – civil nuclear] Survey work has commenced, and we expect to see a full contract finalized by the middle of next year. This means the same AP1000 reactors currently under construction in South Carolina and Georgia will one day power Indian cities and villages. Let me take a moment to underscore the significance of this initiative for our two countries.
First, it fulfills the promise of the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, culminating over ten years of tough negotiations. Second, as the largest project of its kind in India, it provides a major boost for Prime Minister Modi’s ambitious target of diversifying India’s energy resources so that 40% of all power is generated through renewable sources by 2030. Third, it moves India towards its goal of making reliable power available to all its citizens. Fourth, it will bring jobs, good jobs, to both the United States and India, thereby supporting the Make In India campaign. Fifth, it brings cutting edge technologies to India’s power and construction sectors.
What Needs to Be Done
As you can see, U.S.-India climate cooperation has come a long way in a very short period of time. If we continue to take bold actions, I am confident the next decade will be even more transformative than the last.
We look forward to working with India to promote improved standards for heavy-duty vehicles to reduce vehicular carbon and air pollution. This will support India’s efforts to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by approximately 33 percent, a goal it articulated in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution submitted in Paris. The U.S. and India have also resolved to work together at the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Assembly in September to address greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation.
We also need to do more to preserve our forests. It is unacceptable that humans cut down 15 billion trees each year. To put it another way, the global tree count has fallen by 46% since the beginning of human civilization. Reducing deforestation and repopulating forests would help us achieve a full third of global mitigation goals by 2030. We applaud India’s ambitious target to reach 33 percent forest cover and look forward to additional details on implementation when the government releases its new forest policy later this year. The U.S. Forest Service, with support from USAID, is already providing technical training to Indian partners on forest management and restoration.
As many of you know, hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs, pose an especially severe hazard to our planet. That’s why the international community needs to amend the Montreal Protocol to facilitate an ambitious phase-down of HFCs. A phase-down of this “super greenhouse gas” is estimated to prevent the equivalent of 0.5 degrees centigrade of warming from ever being released into the atmosphere. Prime Minister Modi has pledged India’s support and we hope for a positive outcome at the next Montreal Protocol meeting in Rwanda in October.
Finally, the global community needs to move swiftly to bring the Paris agreement into force. 18 countries have already joined the Agreement – France being the most recent – and we expect nearly 40 more countries, including the U.S., to join by the end of the year. During his visit, Prime Minister Modi committed to working with global partners to promote full implementation of the Paris Agreement.
But governments can only do so much; the real champions of change are youth leaders, civil society, and entrepreneurs. People like your selves. ISC for example is partnering with USAID and others in Pune to train factory managers in energy and water efficiency. With assistance from the U.S.-India PACEsetter Fund, young innovators are developing groundbreaking energy solutions. One the awardees I met last month, Biolite, is piloting the world’s first pay as you go home clean energy system in Odisha. By leveraging the creativity and expertise of young Indian innovators, we can incubate local and durable solutions that will make a lasting impact. If you have a good idea, go to PACEsetterfund.org and send it in!
As I approach my two-year mark as the United States Ambassador to India, I can tell you there are few issues I have devoted more time and attention to than climate change. I am proud of the passion and leadership President Obama and Secretary Kerry have shown on climate issues and have striven to replicate their example. I see the same level of leadership and passion in this room. It gives me hope. The wide array of people gathered here today, from scientists and NGOs to private industry and government, speaks to the progress we have made in building a coalition to confront climate change as a common challenge. Thank you for all that you do.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a great pleasure to be back here in Hyderabad, a city rich with history that looks toward the future. I’m here today to discuss how the United States and India are responding to what Secretary of State John Kerry has called the “defining challenge of our generation” – climate change. Tackling this menace will take our brightest and most talented minds and I see those in the room today.
I want to give a special thanks to our lead organizer, the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC). Vice President Steve Nicholas, Asia Director Brent Habig, thank you for braving the heat and coming out all the way from Vermont. Dr. Babu Ambat, from the Center for Environment and Development, thank you as well for your partnership and support. I also want to acknowledge my fellow speakers, including Dr. Ajay Mathur from The Energy & Resources Institute. He was a very constructive partner in Paris. I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Consul General Michael Mullins and his great team at the U.S. Consulate in Hyderabad. Between handling a truly massive visa operation and responding to my taskers from Delhi, Consulate Hyderabad has done tremendous work supporting U.S.-India cooperation on clean energy and climate change.
The Challenge Before Us
A decade ago former Vice President Al Gore made a passionate appeal to Americans and the global community about the need to take concerted action against climate change. What is at stake, he said, is our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization. This is a moral issue, it is your time to seize this issue, it is our time to secure our future.
How far have we come in ten years? The global community has indeed seized this issue. Public awareness is growing and citizens around the world are increasingly demanding action from governments and industry. According to recent surveys, nearly 65 percent of Americans view climate change as a serious threat and similarly more than 70 percent of Indians cited climate change as a leading global concern. A decade ago, reaching international consensus on an ambitious climate accord would have been deemed impossible. But in Paris last December, the global community, thanks in part to Indian leadership, did exactly that. 196 countries came together to reach a historic agreement that seeks to limit global warming to between 1.5 and 2 degrees centigrade from pre-industrial levels.
In April, leaders from around the world, including Environment Minister Javadekar, gathered in New York for the signing ceremony. Secretary Kerry signed the Agreement with his two year old granddaughter sitting on his lap, an image that captured perfectly why it is so important to take action and what is at stake for posterity.
Despite the progress we have made, there is still much more to be done. Climate change knows no political borders. Some portray it as a trade-off between development and economic growth and this perspective often makes it politically difficult to take bold actions. Even now, some segments of our respective societies fail to recognize the impact human activity is having on our planet and how our futures are being jeopardized. The facts, however, are clear and the costs of climate change are already evident.
Written by hundreds of scientists from every corner of the world, the most recent Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) unequivocally states that human influence on the climate system is real and recent emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in the history of humankind. According to NASA, 2015 was the hottest year on record. In fact, of the hottest years on record, 15 out of 17 have occurred since 2000.
Ongoing deforestation and poor land management is responsible for nearly a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Each day, greenhouse gases emitted by human activities trap the same amount of heat energy as would be released by 400,000 atomic bombs.
This excess heat and carbon dioxide are both acidifying and warming the oceans, destroying marine ecosystems and causing more extreme and varied weather patterns. This has huge implications for Asia, where nearly one-third of the world’s population relies on the monsoon for their livelihoods. Around the world, we’re already witnessing extreme floods and long droughts that scientists warn may become more frequent as our climate continues to change. Take a look at these pictures from Madurai and California to see what I mean.
One study published this past March concluded that during the course of the 20th century, sea levels rose more than in any of the previous 27 centuries. Just last week, Secretary Kerry made his first visit to the Arctic to see firsthand how quickly ice sheets are melting.
If greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, sea levels are predicted to rise by five to six feet by the end of this century. These simulations demonstrate the catastrophic impact such a scenario would have on coastal cities like Mumbai and New York. Secretary Kerry will discuss the challenge of rising sea levels among other issues when he hosts the Our Ocean conference in Washington in September.
Climate change is not just an environmental challenge; it is a national security issue. Changes in climate could potentially damage critical infrastructure, create shortages of food and water, and lead to mass migrations and disease outbreaks. Receding ice sheets in the Arctic and the opening of new sea passages raise concerns about maritime security and freedom of navigation. As Secretary Kerry recently stated: “Global threats like terrorism, epidemics, poverty, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction – all are challenges that know no borders – the reality is that climate change ranks right up there with every single one of them.”
However, all is not gloom and doom. The future of our global home is not yet preordained. We already have much of the requisite knowledge and technology to reshape our energy future, but we need to act quickly and decisively if we are to reach the required goal of reducing global emissions tenfold from today’s levels.
What We Are Doing Now
Prime Minister Modi and President Obama clearly recognize the grave threat posed by climate change, and the importance of our two countries working together to combat it. “Protection of environment and caring for the planet”, said the Prime Minister in his recent address to the U.S. Congress “is central to our shared vision of a just world.”
President Obama fully shares the Prime Minister’s vision. He recognizes the U.S. role in creating this problem and our responsibility to take action. That’s why he has undertaken extraordinary efforts to transform America’s energy future and galvanize the international community. Utilizing the provisions of the Clean Air Act, the Obama Administration is reducing emissions from transportation and power plants, which together account for more than 60 percent of the greenhouse gases emitted in the United States. Fuel-economy standards for American cars and trucks are at their highest levels since the invention of the automobile and are among the most stringent in the world. The notion clean development and economic growth are mutually exclusive is a false one – the U.S. economy today is 60 percent larger than it was two decades ago while its carbon emissions have returned to the levels of that time and are on a downward slope. This is our 2025 target.
These domestic efforts have been coupled with U.S. actions abroad, which culminated in the historic Paris Agreement last December. While President Obama has been a relentless driver for global action, he also recognizes the moral obligation of developing countries to bring reliable power to those without it. Standing next to Prime Minister Modi and Bill Gates in Paris, the President stated we cannot forge a climate agreement that permanently resigns the 300 million people in India lacking electricity to a dim future. That’s why he partnered with Prime Minister Modi to launch Mission Innovation, a public-private partnership involving 20 nations that has pledged to double spending on clean energy research and development by 2020. I am confident these resources will help develop new practices and technologies to reduce global carbon emissions while also allowing countries like India to meet their developmental goals.
Prime Minister Modi’s 175 GW target for renewable energy deployments is among the most ambitious in the world and the United States has done a great deal to support this effort. For instance, through the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy, or PACE, we have already mobilized nearly $2.5 billion for clean energy projects in India. Another $1.4 billion in climate finance for solar projects was announced during the Prime Minister’s visit. India’s success is critical to global success and I firmly believe clean energy will be one of the biggest growth opportunities in the years ahead. Between now and 2035, investment in the global energy sector is expected to reach nearly $17 trillion. That’s more than the entire GDP of China and India combined.
India’s solar sector has witnessed spectacular growth in recent years; just last week a 648 MW solar plant – among the world’s largest – went online in Tamil Nadu. The United States is actively supporting India’s solar targets through the Government of India led International Solar Alliance and bilateral initiatives, such as rooftop solar cooperation and solar resource mapping. American companies are also playing a key role. For example, 8minutenergy Renewables is supporting solar photovoltaic projects totaling 4 GW, which are expected to result in over 10,000 Indian jobs. SunLink Corporation is partnering with Indian companies with a deployment target of 1.4 GW over the next five years.
The United States and India are also working to skill up long-term capacity to deal with climate change. In March, I helped launch the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship, which will enable Indian PhD students and post-doctoral researchers to work with their American counterparts on climate research and education. The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune is working with the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on developing high-resolution seasonal and long-term climate forecasts. This will help provide critical information to local decision makers so they can prepare for monsoons decades in the future.
Our cooperation on climate mitigation is even extending into space. NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization are working together to develop a Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite that will observe and measure some of the planet’s most complex processes, including ecosystem disturbances, ice-sheet collapse, and natural hazards. The data gathered from this mission will help build climate resilience and may one day potentially save lives.
Finally, in what marks a major milestone for India’s energy future, the Indian government recently reached an agreement with the Westinghouse Electric Company to build six nuclear reactors in Andhra Pradesh. [Slide 9 – civil nuclear] Survey work has commenced, and we expect to see a full contract finalized by the middle of next year. This means the same AP1000 reactors currently under construction in South Carolina and Georgia will one day power Indian cities and villages. Let me take a moment to underscore the significance of this initiative for our two countries.
First, it fulfills the promise of the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, culminating over ten years of tough negotiations. Second, as the largest project of its kind in India, it provides a major boost for Prime Minister Modi’s ambitious target of diversifying India’s energy resources so that 40% of all power is generated through renewable sources by 2030. Third, it moves India towards its goal of making reliable power available to all its citizens. Fourth, it will bring jobs, good jobs, to both the United States and India, thereby supporting the Make In India campaign. Fifth, it brings cutting edge technologies to India’s power and construction sectors.
What Needs to Be Done
As you can see, U.S.-India climate cooperation has come a long way in a very short period of time. If we continue to take bold actions, I am confident the next decade will be even more transformative than the last.
We look forward to working with India to promote improved standards for heavy-duty vehicles to reduce vehicular carbon and air pollution. This will support India’s efforts to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by approximately 33 percent, a goal it articulated in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution submitted in Paris. The U.S. and India have also resolved to work together at the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Assembly in September to address greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation.
We also need to do more to preserve our forests. It is unacceptable that humans cut down 15 billion trees each year. To put it another way, the global tree count has fallen by 46% since the beginning of human civilization. Reducing deforestation and repopulating forests would help us achieve a full third of global mitigation goals by 2030. We applaud India’s ambitious target to reach 33 percent forest cover and look forward to additional details on implementation when the government releases its new forest policy later this year. The U.S. Forest Service, with support from USAID, is already providing technical training to Indian partners on forest management and restoration.
As many of you know, hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs, pose an especially severe hazard to our planet. That’s why the international community needs to amend the Montreal Protocol to facilitate an ambitious phase-down of HFCs. A phase-down of this “super greenhouse gas” is estimated to prevent the equivalent of 0.5 degrees centigrade of warming from ever being released into the atmosphere. Prime Minister Modi has pledged India’s support and we hope for a positive outcome at the next Montreal Protocol meeting in Rwanda in October.
Finally, the global community needs to move swiftly to bring the Paris agreement into force. 18 countries have already joined the Agreement – France being the most recent – and we expect nearly 40 more countries, including the U.S., to join by the end of the year. During his visit, Prime Minister Modi committed to working with global partners to promote full implementation of the Paris Agreement.
But governments can only do so much; the real champions of change are youth leaders, civil society, and entrepreneurs. People like your selves. ISC for example is partnering with USAID and others in Pune to train factory managers in energy and water efficiency. With assistance from the U.S.-India PACEsetter Fund, young innovators are developing groundbreaking energy solutions. One the awardees I met last month, Biolite, is piloting the world’s first pay as you go home clean energy system in Odisha. By leveraging the creativity and expertise of young Indian innovators, we can incubate local and durable solutions that will make a lasting impact. If you have a good idea, go to PACEsetterfund.org and send it in!
As I approach my two-year mark as the United States Ambassador to India, I can tell you there are few issues I have devoted more time and attention to than climate change. I am proud of the passion and leadership President Obama and Secretary Kerry have shown on climate issues and have striven to replicate their example. I see the same level of leadership and passion in this room. It gives me hope. The wide array of people gathered here today, from scientists and NGOs to private industry and government, speaks to the progress we have made in building a coalition to confront climate change as a common challenge. Thank you for all that you do.
