India, US to raise $100 billion annually to fight climate change

India and the US on Thursday reaffirmed their commitment to raising $100 billion annually from public and private sector sources to help develop the two countries’ efforts to tackle climate change.

The climate crisis was the first topic of discussion at a meeting of the India-US Economic and Financial Partnership on Thursday under the leadership of India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and US treasury secretary Janet Yellen.

“Today’s meeting featured the Economic and Financial Partnership’s first session dedicated to climate finance, reflecting our respective commitments to driving urgent progress in combating climate change and the critical role of climate finance in achieving this shared global goal,” said a joint statement.

It was Nirmala Sitharaman’s first in-person meeting with her US counterpart Janet Yellen, a celebrated economist and former chair of the US Federal Reserve Bank. They were joined at the meeting by Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das and his US counterpart Jerome Powell.

The India-US Economic and Financial Partnership was launched in 2010 as a framework to cement economic bonds between the two countries and build a foundation for greater cooperation and economic growth in the future.

Thursday’s meeting was the first since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Recovery from the pandemic featured prominently in the talks. “We had productive discussions on a range of subjects, including the macroeconomic outlook and recovery from the pandemic, financial regulatory and technical collaboration, multilateral engagement, climate finance, and anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism,” said the joint statement.

The two sides also “re-emphasised commitment to the central role of multilateral cooperation in addressing global challenges. Both sides affirmed their commitment to debt sustainability and transparency in bilateral lending”.

They added, “We acknowledged the importance of working through multilateral development banks to help India access and mobilise available financing to support development objectives, including for climate.”

The two sides also reiterated their commitment to sharing information on income tax on expats.

We take note of the progress made in sharing financial account information between the two countries under the Inter-Governmental Agreement pursuant to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The two sides should continue to engage in discussions on full reciprocal arrangement on FATCA.”