Energy and climate partnerships between India and Germany are approaching a 20-year mark. Now, both countries are adopting green technologies and scaling up mitigation efforts more ambitiously, in line with global climate targets – including the goal to triple renewable energy capacities. In this policy brief, we look at the bilateral partnerships on climate change mitigation, assess how they align with the two countries foreign policy priorities and what a future partnership landscape could look like.

– Our analysis reveals significant overlap in India’s and Germany’s strategic priorities regarding (a) green industrialization, (b) production and trade of green hydrogen, (c) climate justice, in particular improving energy access, and (d) climate finance.

– While there is broad consensus on the need for a “just transition,” there are nuances in terms of the perceived roles and responsibilities considering the historical contributions to climate change and its uneven effects.

– Both countries view green hydrogen as one important element in their energy security and broader economy-wide green transformation. Partnerships in this area should lead to the development of green hydrogen technologies, resolving bottlenecks, defining standards, and establishing broader frameworks including for trade.

– While Germany has committed substantial public finance for climate change mitigation in India, innovative financing models with the involvement of the private sector are needed.

This publication was first published on the website of the German Council on Foreign Relations at https://dgap.org/en/research/publications/toward-indo-german-green-strategic-partnership.

Read the report here.

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Kira Vinke is head of the Center for Climate and Foreign Policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). 

Tim Bosch is a project manager in DGAP’s Center for Climate and Foreign Policy. 

Abdullah Fahimi is a research fellow in DGAP’s Center for Climate and Foreign Policy, where he works on energy and climate policy issues with a geographical focus on India and China 

Promit Mookherjee is an Associate Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation.

• International Affairs
• Economics and Finance
• India
• The Pacific, East and Southeast Asia
• climate
• climate finance
• Climate Justice
• Energy
• Germany
• green hydrogen
• green technologies
• India
• just transition
• mitigation
• renewable energy

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