Germany announces €1.2 billion to help India in battle with climate change

Germany, which together with India accounts for nearly 9 per cent of global greenhouse gases, has announced new development commitments worth 1.2 billion euros (₹10,025 crore) to the latter to help it in its battle against climate change.

In a statement released on Wednesday (November 24), the German embassy said the aim of the commitment towards India would be to assist it in its climate change projects and transition towards clean energy sources.

Stressing that India’s role is crucial in the fight against climate change, Lindner said Germany is also working towards fulfilling its own pledge made at Glasgow.

Also read: The Glasgow climate opportunity for India

“Every fifth person on this planet is Indian. Without Indians you cannot solve any big world problems, and one of the biggest is climate change. We try to work together with India and help with climate change, renewable energy and similar projects, which also helps in working towards our own goals we promised at COP26 in Glasgow,” German ambassador Walter Lindner said.

Both the countries at the recently-held climate summit in Glasgow had pledged to make concerted efforts to strengthen their energy and climate partnership.

In view of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) report which predicted that both the nations will suffer more extreme events due to climate change, both India and Germany at COP26 had made joint commitments to scale down their use of non-renewable and switch to cleaner alternatives.

“At COP26, India and Germany agreed to phase down unabated coal power. Germany will exit coal by 2038, possibly much earlier. And India has just joined a multilateral Coal Transition Programme funded by the Climate Investments Funds and supported by Germany. Very concretely, India has already identified 50 gigawatts of coal plants for retirement by 2027,” the German embassy said in its statement.

At Glasgow, India vowed to achieve net-zero emission status by 2070 and reduce 1 billion tonnes of emissions from its projected emissions between now and 2030, among others. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also sought the help of developed countries to provide climate finance of $1 trillion to the developing nations to help them achieve their climate change mitigation targets.

As part of its new financial commitments towards India, Germany has earmarked 713 million euros for energy, 409 million euros for urban development and 90 million euros for agri-ecology and natural resources.

Also read: Glasgow Pact lacks teeth as climate finance takes a backseat

Germany has been one of the key strategic partners of India in the pursuit of clean energy with both the countries committed towards each other as part of the Indo-German Cooperation. Under the pact, signed in the 1950s, both the countries are committed to achieving millennium development goals and deal with challenges in climate and environment.

At the Paris Climate Summit in 2015, German chancellor Angela Merkel had agreed to the Indo-Germany Climate and Renewables Alliances while pledging $2.25 billion towards India’s Green Energy Corridor and solar projects.