Strengthening U.S.-India Collaboration for Climate Change Solutions

When two of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters decide to work together on climate change, the stakes – and the potential – are enormous. The United States and India are the second- and third-largest emitters of greenhouse gases globally, and their energy choices will shape the trajectory of global warming for decades. That shared responsibility has driven a steadily deepening partnership – one that spans solar power, clean energy research, grid modernization, and climate finance. Understanding how this collaboration has evolved, and where it stands today, matters not just for diplomats and policymakers, but for anyone paying attention to the future of the planet.

Why the U.S.-India partnership on climate matters 🔗

India is a country of contradictions when it comes to energy and climate. It is a rising economic giant with enormous energy needs, yet it ranked fourth in the world in cumulative renewable energy capacity in 2024, after China, the United States, and Germany. At the same time, coal remains deeply embedded in its power grid. The United States, for its part, carries the heaviest historical burden of emissions among all nations. As the world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases, the U.S. is also one of the largest consumers and producers of energy and an important source of technological innovation.

This combination – India’s scale and growth ambition, America’s technological capacity – makes their partnership uniquely consequential. No global solution to climate change is possible without action and progress from the United States and India, the world’s second- and fourth-largest greenhouse gas-emitting economies respectively. Working together on policies, technologies, and financing can support aggressive domestic economic and energy transformations that can serve as models for other growing economies.

The origins of PACE: building a framework from scratch 🔗

In November 2009, the United States and India launched the Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE), a flagship bilateral initiative designed to accelerate low-carbon growth by supporting the research and deployment of clean energy technologies. The timing was significant – it came just weeks before the Copenhagen climate summit and reflected a new willingness from both countries to move beyond rhetoric into structured cooperation.

The PACE initiative was established between 2009 and 2011 and started a range of initiatives to encourage the use of clean energy in India, including technical assistance agreements and joint research and development initiatives. By 2016, it had expanded to cover more and more energy subsectors. The framework operated through two key pillars: PACE-Research (PACE-R), focused on joint scientific work, and PACE-Deployment, aimed at channeling finance and investment into India’s clean energy market.

The Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center 🔗

One of PACE’s most concrete early achievements was the establishment of a Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (JCERDC), a joint initiative of India’s Ministry of Science and Technology and the U.S. Department of Energy. Both sides renewed their commitment to this $125 million program, jointly funded by the U.S. and Indian governments and the private sector, extending research into solar energy, building energy efficiency, advanced biofuels, and later smart grid and energy storage technologies.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the Government of India each committed $1.5 million per year over a five-year period, with 50% cost share coming from consortium partners. This kind of co-investment model – where both governments put in matching funds and bring in private industry – became a template for how the two countries approach collaboration.

Mobilizing billions in clean energy finance 🔗

Research was only part of the picture. The PACE framework also worked to unlock large-scale investment in India’s renewable energy sector. Through PACE, the United States and India mobilized over $2.5 billion since 2009 to support clean energy deployment.

Multiple U.S. government agencies contributed to this effort. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) approved a $300 million South Asia Clean Energy Fund, nearly all of which targeted India, in addition to over $520 million of financing and insurance committed for Indian solar projects. The Export-Import Bank also financed $75 million worth of solar power projects in the country. These were not charitable contributions – they were strategic investments designed to de-risk India’s renewable energy market and attract private capital alongside public funds.

USAID’s PACE-Deployment program supported clean energy technologies and policies through a $20 million, five-year project, and also funded work by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on integrating large-scale renewables into India’s grid – a critical technical challenge as solar and wind capacity expanded rapidly.

From PACE to the Strategic Clean Energy Partnership 🔗

PACE laid the foundation, but the bilateral relationship on climate has continued to evolve and deepen. The Trump era saw a significant shift in bilateral energy and climate cooperation, where climate received little to no high-level attention, but energy access, security, and fossil fuel exports from the U.S. to India gained prominence. The U.S.-India Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP), launched in 2018, reorganized existing cooperation but shifted the emphasis away from climate.

That changed decisively in 2021. At the Leaders Summit on Climate in April 2021, President Biden and Prime Minister Modi launched the “U.S.-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership” – a high-level commitment to drive urgent progress through the current decade. The partnership was structured around two tracks: the Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP), co-chaired by the U.S. Secretary of Energy, and the Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue, co-chaired by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.

The five pillars of the SCEP 🔗

The partnership operates across five key pillars: Renewable Energy, Sustainable Growth, Power and Energy Efficiency, Responsible Oil and Gas, and Emerging Fuels. Each represents a distinct area where U.S.-India cooperation can produce measurable results. The Renewable Energy pillar focuses on scaling clean energy solutions to support India’s ambitious non-fossil fuel targets. The Power and Energy Efficiency pillar works on modernizing grid infrastructure, improving energy storage, and integrating renewables reliably into the power system.

The Emerging Fuels pillar has become increasingly significant. The two countries have made strides in advancing renewable energy deployment and reliable grid integration, promoting energy efficiency, and accelerating decarbonization of high-emitting sectors like industry, buildings, and transport. Collaboration on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) has also been formalized, with the two countries launching joint workshops and reports to support SAF research, financing, and certification.

India’s renewable energy targets and what the partnership supports 🔗

India has set a target of installing 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030 as part of its climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. That is an extraordinarily ambitious goal for a country that was at 86.8 GW of renewable capacity in 2020. India has already surpassed the 50% non-fossil installed capacity milestone – achieving its conditional NDC target well ahead of the 2030 schedule, with record investment in renewables showing a 91.5% increase between 2023 and 2024.

The U.S.-India partnership has directly supported this trajectory. India’s National Open Access Registry (NOAR), launched with support from USAID and the Power System Operation Corporation, became a centralized platform that streamlines the short-term approval process for power transactions, fostering transparency and market efficiency. The Smart Grid Knowledge Centre (SGKC) in India, another product of this collaboration, now serves as a global center of excellence for smart grid solutions.

The role of U.S. government agencies 🔗

The breadth of this partnership is reflected in the sheer number of U.S. agencies involved. The Department of Energy (DOE) leads on research and technology collaboration through PACE-R and the SCEP. USAID has been the primary vehicle for technical assistance, capacity building, and deployment support – from training Indian regulators on energy market management to funding grid integration research. USAID has played a critical role in strengthening the capabilities of Indian regulators and industry leaders through targeted workshops on financial derivatives and forward contracts.

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has evaluated assistance for infrastructure projects, helping Indian entities access American clean energy expertise. The Export-Import Bank has provided direct financing for solar projects. And the State Department has anchored the high-level diplomatic engagement that gives this partnership political weight across administrations.

Both countries have recognized that ambitious national climate and clean energy goals require concerted action and implementation at all levels of government to ensure their viability and sustainability. Capacity building and the exchange of best practices across both public and private stakeholders have been consistently highlighted as critical to making the cooperation real rather than just aspirational.

Emerging frontiers: hydrogen, EVs, and supply chains 🔗

As the partnership has matured, it has expanded into newer technology areas. The U.S.-India Hydrogen Task Force, launched in 2021, was quickly followed by India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission and the passage of the U.S. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. Both countries are now investing heavily in green hydrogen, though integrating these parallel domestic programs into joint commercial outcomes remains a work in progress.

Electric vehicles are another active frontier. The two countries have welcomed new collaboration on electrification of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, including a series of related workshops and structured expert exchanges. And on manufacturing, the potential to make India a manufacturing hub for future clean energy supply chains – in areas such as clean hydrogen, solar energy manufacturing, and critical minerals – has become a theme in bilateral ties, partly driven by both countries’ desire to diversify away from Chinese dominance in these sectors.

Challenges and the road ahead 🔗

The partnership, while substantial, is not without its limitations. Despite increased technological cooperation, engagement with the U.S. under the Agenda 2030 Partnership has failed to yield appreciable finance or investment for India’s energy transition. Most of the achievements have been in technical assistance – pilot projects and knowledge exchanges – rather than the large-scale capital mobilization that India’s energy transition ultimately needs.

Political cycles also remain a structural vulnerability. Cooperation deepened significantly under the Obama and Biden administrations, and contracted during the Trump years. India’s expanding network of bilateral climate partnerships – including with the EU, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, and the UAE – serves strategic purposes beyond emissions reduction, and reflects a deliberate Indian strategy of not becoming overly dependent on any single partner. This diversification makes sense given how much U.S. engagement can shift with electoral politics.

Still, the structural logic of U.S.-India climate cooperation remains strong. Despite limitations, energy and climate remain a high priority for the bilateral relationship, on par with topics such as defence and security. The two countries share a genuine interest in technological leadership, energy security, and economic growth through clean energy – not just environmental idealism. That alignment of interest, more than any single agreement, is what gives this partnership its staying power.

What do you think? Given that U.S.-India climate cooperation tends to fluctuate with changes in American political leadership, how can both countries build more durable, institution-based frameworks that outlast any single administration? And as India rapidly scales up its renewable energy capacity, is bilateral technical assistance enough – or does the partnership need to fundamentally shift toward large-scale climate finance to be truly transformative?

References

1. https://orfamerica.org/newresearch/the-future-of-climate-cooperation-between-the-united-states-and-india
2. https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/india/
3. https://csep.org/reports/indias-climate-engagement-with-the-united-states-factors-and-ways-forward/
4. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/renewed-u-s-india-climate-cooperation/
5. https://www.energy.gov/ia/initiatives/us-india-energy-cooperation
6. https://iusstf.org/indo-u-s-joint-clean-energy-research-development-centre
7. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/25/fact-sheet-us-and-india-climate-and-clean-energy-cooperation
8. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/07/fact-sheet-united-states-and-india-%E2%80%93-moving-forward-together-climate
9. https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/07/168743.htm
10. https://www.energy.gov/articles/us-india-joint-statement-launching-us-india-climate-and-clean-energy-agenda-2030
11. https://www.impriindia.com/insights/us-india-climate-clean-energy/
12. https://www.energy.gov/articles/us-india-strategic-clean-energy-partnership-ministerial-joint-statement
13. https://2021-2025.state.gov/u-s-india-joint-statement-on-launching-the-u-s-india-climate-and-clean-energy-agenda-2030-partnership/
14. https://in.usembassy.gov/u-s-india-strategic-clean-energy-partnership-ministerial-joint-statement/
15. https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-future-of-climate-cooperation-between-the-united-states-and-india
16. https://cfr.org/articles/indias-new-climate-statecraft