Frenemies

Posted on 27. Nov, 2010 by Leela Raina in India

They say that your enemy’s enemy is your best friend. And that was one of Obama’s underlying tones for his recent visit to India. Considering the growth of China and its growing power and influence in the world , the USA has to establish relations with the neighboring countries to be able to maintain status quo as far as political relations go. Many believe that this was the real reason behind Obama’s visit to India, Indonesia and other eastern countries whereas many others believe that its just is mere propoganda.

Before the visit, many touted it as a perfect opportunity for becoming a crucial moment for India to take stock of its efforts against climate change, and recalibrate what it can aim to do in the next few years – both on its own, and together with the United States.

India’s partnership with the United States has added strength to India’s own efforts. At the same time, the United States can also learn from many of India’s actions. As NRDC President Frances Beinecke noted, President Obama’s visit this week has immense potential to be transformational for both nations. We hope that it bolsters the exchange between the two countries on climate change and clean energy, and that India and the United States evolve into a true team, partnering with each other in an effective and results-oriented manner that leads both to joint success in the global clean energy race.

As President Obama was visiting India for the first time since taking office, clean energy and climate was high on the agenda. These issues are not only critical to long-term success on issues of trade, investment and security; they also provide one of the most significant opportunities for cooperation between the two countries.

Joint action on climate and energy can boost investment and development in both countries and catalyze the world’s efforts to combat climate change. The U.S. and India have clear differentiated capacity and responsibility in this regard. As the largest historical contributor to the problem, the U.S. should act as a global leader. India’s 400 million people without access to electricity are an illustration of its development challenges. Despite these important differences, the diplomatic, human and economic ties that bind the two nations make the case for cooperation particularly strong.

On the following three broad areas WRI explains that , President Obama and Prime Minister Singh can commit to a strong partnership of equals, where both countries stand to gain:

Collaboration on Clean energy and technology as far as Rand D as well as technology transfer is concerned, learn and support each others experiences as far as adaptation for climate change was concerned and building a strong international framework for cooperation on issues of clean energy, climate change, and food security.

But, what really happened?

The two leaders welcomed the completion of steps by the two governments for implementation of the India-U.S. civil nuclear agreement. They reiterated their commitment to build strong India-U.S. civil nuclear energy cooperation through the participation of the U.S. nuclear energy firms in India on the basis of mutually acceptable technical and commercial terms and conditions that enable a viable tariff regime for electricity generated.

o

The US signed a Memorandum of Understanding with India for an India-US Clean Energy Research and Development Centre. The Centre will involve active participation of academic and private sectors of both countries working in a consortia mode. The consortium will be self-selecting teams with entities or individuals from national labs, academic institutions, private sector, NGOs etc and bring together talent from both countries This was first agreed during Prime Minister Singh’s state visit to Washington in November 2009, but President Obama’s this visit to India only accelerated the process of this initiative to proceed to the next level. The initiative is launched with a view to create a clean energy economy for the 21st century with the main focus being wind and solar energy.

The US and India will put in 5 million dollars each for the next 5 years towards the R&D Centre, which will conduct joint R&D and deploy clean energy technologies. The three most important initial priority areas of this initiative are:

1. Solar energy
2. Second generation bio-fuels
3. Building efficiency

The successful working of this initiative will enhance both the countries with new economic opportunities for their people as well as create new jobs in the clean energy sector.

On international climate change negotiations within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Prime Minister Singh and President Obama reiterated the importance of a positive result at the forthcoming UNFCCC conference in Mexico and affirmed their support for the Copenhagen Accord. To that end, the leaders welcomed enhanced cooperation in the area of climate adaptation and sustainable land use, and also welcomed the new partnership between the US and India on forestry programmes and in weather forecasting.

At a joint news conference in New Delhi President Obama summarized the scope of environment agreement reached over the past 3 days saying “As a result of this visit, we agree to deepen our co-operation in pursuit of clean energy technologies including the creation of new clean energy research centre here in India and continuing our joint research into solar, biofuels, shale gas and building efficiency”. An MoU was also signed to establish an Indo-US Energy Co-operation program, 3 primary features of this program being:

1. Use of clean energy and energy efficiency business
2. Mobilizing private sector expertise and resources on energy related issues in both India and U.S.
3. Funding studies and related projects development work on clean and efficient energy

In addition President Obama led a US-India Innovation Roundtable with a group of India and US based private sector executives whose respective partnerships are creating jobs in the US and improving quality of life for millions of people in India.

Talking about propoganda, last year one of the main newspapers in India- the Times of India carried a story by which it is to believed that the reason why India was proactively wanting to come out with a solution at Copenhagen ie. the Copehagen Accord is because it was lobbying for the security council seat at the UN. At that time many civil society members shot the idea down but I cant seem to help but notice the uncanny coincidence of the mention of climate change and the security council one after the other in Obama’s speech to the parliament whose whole text you can find below

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/full-text-obamas-address-to-parliament-65093

Was it really the greed of a security council seat that made India broker the copehagen accord? Well I leave this question open ended with the hope that India has moved on in its foreign policy strategy. Moreover , hope that this trip for the US made them realize that India is doing its bit and its high time they do so too.

Tags: Cancún, clean energy, climate, climate chnage, coooperation, energy, environment, featured, hope, India, November, Obama, senate, technology, UNFCCC, US, USA, visit