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Days of multiple initiatives at COP26: India and UK join hands to help small island nations build climate resilient infrastructure | India News - Times of India
India News: Underlining the importance of adaptation in fighting against the climate crisis in the most vulnerable countries across the globe, India and the UK on
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IOC chief S M Vaidya 2nd Indian to head world LPG body - Times of India
India Business News: NEW DELHI: IndianOil chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya has become the second Indian to head the World LPG Association, indicating India’s rising clout o.
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Prime Minister participates in event to launch the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity
May 23, 2022Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi participated in an event in Tokyo today to launch the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). The event saw the presence of President of the USA H.E. Mr. Joseph R. Biden and Prime Minister of Japan H.E. Mr. Kishida Fumio, as well as the virtual presence of leaders of other partners countries viz. Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
2. A Joint Statement was issued on the occasion, which highlights the key elements envisaged within the IPEF.
3. The IPEF seeks to strengthen economic partnership amongst participating countries with the objective of enhancing resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness, and competitiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
4. In his comments during the launch ceremony, Prime Minister said that announcement of IPEF is a declaration of a collective desire to make the Indo-Pacific region an engine of global economic growth. India has historically been at the centre of trade flows in the Indo-Pacific region, having the world’s oldest commercial port in Lohtal, Gujarat. Prime Minister called for finding common and creative solutions to tackle economic challenges of the Indo-Pacific region.
5. He expressed India’s commitment towards working with all Indo-Pacific countries for an IPEF which is both inclusive and flexible. He underlined that the foundation of resilient supply chains must be 3T’s – Trust, Transparency and Timeliness.
6. India is committed to a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region and believes that deepening economic engagement among partners is crucial for continued growth, peace, and prosperity. India is keen to collaborate with partner countries under the IPEF and work towards advancing regional economic connectivity, integration and boosting trade and investment within the region.
7. With today's launch, partner countries will begin discussions focusing on strengthening economic cooperation and achieving shared goals.
MEA | Statements : Press Releases
Prime Minister participates in event to launch the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity
India joins First Movers Coalition to decarbonise carbon-heavy sectors
Led by the WEF and the US government, the First Movers Coalition targets sectors, including aluminium, aviation, chemicals, concrete, shipping, steel and truckingBesides India, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Norway, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom have also joined the US as government partners to create early markets for clean technologies. (Photo: Bloomberg)
India has joined the First Movers Coalition, a global initiative aimed at decarbonising the heavy industry and long-distance transport sectors responsible for 30 per cent of global emissions, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry announced on Wednesday.
Launched by US President Joe Biden and the WEF at COP26 as a flagship public-private partnership to clean up the most carbon-intensive sectors, also saw 50 new corporate members with collective market cap of USD 8.5 trillion joining the force.
Besides India, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Norway, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom have also joined the US as government partners to create early markets for clean technologies through policy measures and private sector engagements.
India, along with Japan and Sweden, has also joined the steering board of the coalition.
Kerry made the announcement alongside Bill Gates, founder of Breakthrough Energy, at a press briefing hosted by the World Economic Forum here during its Annual Meeting 2022.
Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, said, "India has been at the forefront of climate change actions. The idea of LIFE - "Lifestyle For Environment" - as highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the call for a global mass movement on sustainable lifestyles, is very critical for combating climate change."
India has also taken global leadership with initiatives like the International Solar Alliance, One Sun One World One Grid, and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, he added.
"We believe that the need of the hour is to strengthen technological innovation so as to have cost-effective climate technologies on a larger scale. The First Movers Coalition has a huge role to play in this and to achieve our climate goals," Goyal added.
Led by the WEF and the US government, the First Movers Coalition targets sectors, including aluminium, aviation, chemicals, concrete, shipping, steel and trucking, which are responsible for 30 per cent of global emissions - a proportion expected to rise to over 50 per cent by mid-century without urgent progress on clean technology innovation.
The coalition's members have committed to purchasing - out of their total industrial materials and long-distance transport spending - a percentage from suppliers using near-zero or zero-carbon solutions, despite the premium cost.
If enough global companies commit a certain percentage of their future purchasing to clean technologies in this decade, this will create a market tipping point that will accelerate their affordability and drive long-term, net-zero transformation across industrial value chains.
The new corporate members include global technology giants Alphabet and Microsoft, along with AES, Aveva, Ball Corporation, BHP, Consolidated Contractors Company, Ecolab, Enel, EY, FedEx, Ford Motor Company, HeidelbergCement, Mitsui OSK Lines, National Grid, Novelis, PWC, Schneider Electric, Swiss Re and Vestas.
In addition to the US government, the coalition now has India, Japan and Sweden in the Steering Board, as well as Denmark, Italy, Norway, Singapore and the United Kingdom as government partners.
These government partners will invite companies from their countries to join the coalition and pursue public policies to commercialise the green technologies corporate members commit to purchasing.
The coalition also announced two new target sectors: carbon dioxide removal and aluminium, which join the four existing sectoral pledges (aviation, shipping, steel and trucking) launched at COP26.
Alphabet, Microsoft and Salesforce have collectively committed USD 500 million to Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR). Microsoft will further serve as an expert partner by sharing lessons from its carbon removal auctions.
Boston Consulting Group (also the First Movers Coalition Knowledge Partner) committed to removing 100,000 tonnes of carbon.
Kerry said, "The purchasing commitments made by the First Movers Coalition represent the highest-leverage climate action that companies can take because creating the early markets to scale advanced technologies materially reduces the whole world's emissions not just any company's own footprint."
"With today's expansion, the coalition has achieved scale across the world's leading companies and support from committed governments around the world to tackle the hardest challenge of the climate crisis: reducing the emissions from the sectors where we don't yet have the toolkit to replace unabated fossil fuels and swiftly reach net-zero emissions," he added.
Borge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum, said, "The coalition's members are truly the 'First Movers' who are focused on scaling disruptive innovations that pave the way for long-term transformation rather than the lower-hanging fruit of short-term process efficiency gains."
Once the tipping point is reached in the market, the First Movers Coalition will demonstrate that a net- or near-zero transformation across the value chain is not only possible but that it will be no more expensive than the high-emitting alternative, he added.
India joins First Movers Coalition to decarbonise carbon-heavy sectors
Led by the WEF and the US government, the First Movers Coalition targets sectors, including aluminium, aviation, chemicals, concrete, shipping, steel and trucking
India wants WTO fishery pact to offer equitable space for growth
India will endorse a proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on fishery subsidies if the agreement is equitable and does not tie the member-countries to a disadvantageous position in perpetuity, official sources said on Wednesday.A series of meetings are taking place in Geneva to reach a consensus on an agreement, aimed at containing harmful subsidies to promote sustainable fishing, ahead of the 12th ministerial conference that starts from June 12.
India favours a 25-year exemption from over-fishing subsidy prohibition for developing countries that are not engaged in distant-water fishing. At the same time, it suggests big subsidisers abolish their dole-outs within these 25 years, setting the stage for most developing nations to follow suit.
New Delhi believes that big subsidisers (advanced fishing nations) must take greater responsibility in scrapping their dole-outs and reducing fishing capacities, in sync with the principles of “polluter pays” and “common but differentiated responsibilities”.
“India is committed to concluding the negotiations so long as it provides space for equitable growth and freedom in developing fishing capacities for the future without locking members into disadvantageous arrangements in perpetuity,” one of sources said.
Nevertheless, India is actively engaged in discussion with member-countries to find a consensus. “We hope that there can be an outcome because everybody has put in a lot of effort and we hope that something will emerge which will be an outcome and which will be a win-win for everybody,” said the source.
Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, who chairs the negotiations, has convened a week-long meeting of WTO members from May 30 to resolve contentious issues.
Massive subsidies, extended mostly by large fishing nations, have contributed to the overexploitation of the world’s fish stocks. An independent study by a group of authors, led by U Rashid Sumaila of University of British Columbia, shows the fishery subsidy in India stood at only $227 million in 2018, way below $7.26 billion in China, $3.80 billion in the EU, $3.43 billion in the US, $3.19 billion in South Korea and $2.86 billion in Japan.
Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India
India welcomes the Republic of Panama to the International Solar Alliance. Ambassador of Panama Yasiel Burillo signed and handed over the International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement to JS(ED)...
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Blinken to host 'Blue Pacific' event amid competition with China
WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host the Partners in the Blue Pacific (PBP) countries on Thursday with the aim of better coordinating assistance to the region in the face of competition from China, a White House official said.The group was formed in June and includes the United States, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. read more India has an observer status with the PBP, White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell said in remarks at an event in New York. A few other countries would join too, he said.
Campbell said circumstances for the Pacific islands countries were "much more dire" than in the past.
"Their livelihoods are threatened," he said, pointing to the "existential" threat they face from climate change and the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism revenue and business.
"Much of the assistance in the Pacific is not as well coordinated as it could be. We have not learned as much about best practices. We're going to seek to do that as we go forward, building on the existing institutions and engagements of the Pacific."
Some different countries would be doing more in the Pacific diplomatically "in terms of business prospects and aid and assistance," Campbell added.
He said there was an "undeniable strategic component" to the stepped up engagement.
"We've seen in the last several years a more ambitious China that seeks to develop footprints militarily and the like in the Indo Pacific ... that has caused some anxiety with partners like Australia and New Zealand, even countries in the region as a whole."
The Blue Pacific event, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, will come ahead of a Sept. 28-29 summit U.S. President Joe Biden plans to host with Pacific island leaders, which Campbell said reflected "a desire to demonstrate clearly our larger commitment to the Pacific going forward."
He said Washington did not want to see the region descend into "zero-sum" competition and he looked forward to conversations with Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and his delegation.
"We are going to step up our game with respect to supporting a variety of initiatives across the Pacific that will positively affect the Solomons as well," he said. "But we've also been clear about what our concerns are and we would not want to see ... a capacity for long-range power projection."
U.S.-China competition for influence in the Pacific islands has intensified this year after China signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands, prompting warnings of a militarization of the region. read more
Pacific island leaders said this month Washington should accept their priorities, making climate change - not superpower competition - the most urgent security task.
Blinken to host 'Blue Pacific' event amid competition with China
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host the Partners in the Blue Pacific (PBP) countries on Thursday with the aim of better coordinating assistance to the region in the face of competition from China, a White House official said.
Grouping steps up efforts against ransomware, India a key partner
At the end of the first in-person CRI summit in Washington DC on Wednesday, the grouping took a series of decisions to step up the institutional mechanisms to deal with what US national security advisor Jake Sullivan called a “global challenge that requires global cooperation to produce global...
Prime Minister participates in event to launch the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity
May 23, 2022
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi participated in an event in Tokyo today to launch the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). The event saw the presence of President of the USA H.E. Mr. Joseph R. Biden and Prime Minister of Japan H.E. Mr. Kishida Fumio, as well as the virtual presence of leaders of other partners countries viz. Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
2. A Joint Statement was issued on the occasion, which highlights the key elements envisaged within the IPEF.
3. The IPEF seeks to strengthen economic partnership amongst participating countries with the objective of enhancing resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness, and competitiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
4. In his comments during the launch ceremony, Prime Minister said that announcement of IPEF is a declaration of a collective desire to make the Indo-Pacific region an engine of global economic growth. India has historically been at the centre of trade flows in the Indo-Pacific region, having the world’s oldest commercial port in Lohtal, Gujarat. Prime Minister called for finding common and creative solutions to tackle economic challenges of the Indo-Pacific region.
5. He expressed India’s commitment towards working with all Indo-Pacific countries for an IPEF which is both inclusive and flexible. He underlined that the foundation of resilient supply chains must be 3T’s – Trust, Transparency and Timeliness.
6. India is committed to a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region and believes that deepening economic engagement among partners is crucial for continued growth, peace, and prosperity. India is keen to collaborate with partner countries under the IPEF and work towards advancing regional economic connectivity, integration and boosting trade and investment within the region.
7. With today's launch, partner countries will begin discussions focusing on strengthening economic cooperation and achieving shared goals.
MEA | Statements : Press Releases
Prime Minister participates in event to launch the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperitymea.gov.in