Given International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA's) huge global experiences in renewable energy sector, especially in solar energy, it can play a vital role in India's efforts towards attainment of enhanced climate goals, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said on Tuesday. He was referring to the climate goals as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 2021 COP26, the annual climate change negotiations conference that took place at Glasgow in November 2021, and where he had announced what is now famous as 'panchamrut' or five major goals towards net zero by 2070. "Discussed issues of mutual interest and areas to strengthen engagement between IRENA and India.
India's Presidency of G-20 is a golden opportunity for both India and IRENA to explore and work on how renewable energy can accelerate industry transition of hard-to-abate sectors but without compromising the development aspirations of the developing countries and leaving no one behind," Yadav tweeted after meeting with IRENA Director General Francesco La Camera here. He also underlined that India may also look beyond G-20 and the existing arrangements while strengthening engagement between IRENA and India. "IRENA may also explore how it can also be part of (CDRI) and LeadIT, which are spearheaded by India." Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and LeadIT, the leadership group for Industry Transition, are initiatives by India that underline the needs of developing countries. Both, India and IRENA team also discussed the importance of providing means of implementation including finance, technology transfer and capacity building support for achieving enhanced climate goals by developing countries such as India.