The recently signed US-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership will remain an important platform for the U.S. and India to further global efforts towards tackling climate change. The renewed commitments of the US, under the Biden administration, should lead to over USD 2 billion in public climate finance pledges from the US to India between 2021 to 2025, and strategically deploy those resources to crowd-in private climate finance of at least twice that value (USD 4 billion) in the next five years.
India and the US have over a decade of strategic cooperation in energy and climate change, starting in 2009 with the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE). India and the US have an opportunity under the new bilateral climate partnership announced in April 2021, to leverage existing bilateral platforms to enhance climate cooperation.
As India positions itself as a leader in the global ZEV transition, there is an opportunity to facilitate cross-regional learnings. While ZEV policies have been implemented in various parts of the world, the State of California is probably the only regional government to have the most comprehensive and oldest ZEV policy ecosystem. The learnings from the California experience along with other regions, would offer India an opportunity to consider a mix of policies that would support the uptake of ZEVs while simultaneously spurring the development of a nascent industry that can bring with it important industrial growth.
In addition to strong US-India bilateral ties, California shares a strong economic relationship with India as well. India is currently California’s 9th largest export destination. In 2021, California exports to India brought in over USD 5.8 billion, making up 21.4% of total U.S. exports. Further, as of 2021, Indian GDP was around USD 2.9 trillion, while California GDP was around USD 3.4 trillion. California’s LDV market sees about 2 million new annual sales, while India sells about 3 million LDVs annually.