Dear All,
--
As the 14th EU-India Summit took place in New Delhi today, here's
my take on how the relations between the entities, the European Union
and India, have evolved over the years, the bottlenecks faced and scope
for the future.
Can India-EU strategic partnership focus on climate change, clean energy?
- At the 14th India-EU Summit, a call was given for Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two parties
- European Investment Bank pledged EUR 800 million to invest in solar projects across India
- An agreement was concluded on mobility of young scientists and researchers
- Discussions were held on affordable energy, development of smart cities and infrastructure and commitment to Paris Agreement goals
The 14th EU-India Summit concluded in New Delhi today (October 6). The
main agenda of the summit was strengthening trade and investment ties.
While the EU was represented by Donald Tusk, President of the European
Council and Jean Claude Juncker, President of
the European Commission, India was represented by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi.
Three pacts were signed: one between European Investment bank and
International Solar Alliance; second on Bangalore metro rail project and
third on mobility of Indian and European researchers. Discussions on
migration, refugees and stepping up maritime security
were held among other issues. They called for a free trade agreement
between India and the EU.
The EU-India strategic partnership was launched in 2004 and the joint
action plan (JAP) was developed in 2005. With the initiation of
negotiations on Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), the
nature of this bilateral relation seems to have moved
towards being trade-based. Other issues, including foreign policy,
security, environment and terrorism also formed part of the JAP and
discussions under the bilateral EU-India Summit were held every year
from then on until 2013 when the process was disrupted
due to the deadlock on BTIA. The EU’s other strategic partners are
China, Mexico and Brazil. The latest EU-Russia strategic partnership was
signed in 2011 but failed on account of annexation of Crimea and host
of Russian activities viewed as disruptive and
unstrategic by the Europeans.
The EU-India relations have struggled from 2009 onwards. The Eurozone
debt crisis, policy incoherence in the EU as a result of its expansion,
policy paralysis in India under UPA II and disruption in negotiations on
BTIA are the key reasons cited by experts
for the same. During the same phase, the EU’s role in areas of global
governance such as climate change also decreased significantly. Its
diplomacy failed during the 2009 Copenhagen Summit, which was meant to
adopt another deal to replace Kyoto Protocol.
Its role in the Paris Summit, 2015 was also largely defined by French
leadership.
However, things have been improving since then. The EU has emerged as a
stronger economic entity and India has new leadership under PM Modi,
focusing on development and good governance. EU and India renewed their
relations during the 13th EU-India Summit held
in Brussels in 2016, which saw resumption of BTIA talks and adoption of
an Agenda for Action 2020 to jointly guide and strengthen
the India-EU Strategic Partnership in the next five years.
The Agenda identifies key areas of cooperation, including foreign
policy, security, clean energy, climate change, clean coal, migration
and refugees. The ambit of cooperation extends to India’s flagship
initiatives, including Make in India, Clean Ganga, Clean
India, Smart Cities and biotechnology, sustainable energy and
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Cooperation on climate change
The Agenda for Action 2020 has a separate section on climate change
under which both the EU and India seek to work on enforcing intended
nationally determined contributions (INDCs) which the countries
submitted leading up to the Paris Agreement. Cooperation
on other components of Paris Agreement such as transparency and
accountability framework, adaptation and disaster preparedness also
forms part of the vision document. Regarding energy, the cooperation is
focused on energy efficiency in buildings, development
of renewable resources, including solar and offshore wind, smart grids,
energy research and innovation.
The economic partnership seems to have been mutually beneficial. The EU
is India’s largest trading partner with India receiving around US$
83 bn FDI flows from Europe during 2000-17, accounting for
24 per cent of the total foreign investments. But now, the nature of
partnership must be revisited and made more dynamic by including other
pressing issues and confronting us today. Climate
change is one of them.
After the US pullout, the EU is well positioned to lead the climate
agenda despite deadlock over Brexit. The EU has been a leader on clean
technologies. Research points out that globally, 40
per cent of the high-value technologies started in EU. In
the field of renewable, EU has proved its mettle. At 276 GW, EU has the
highest renewable energy capacity in the world. It has also set a
target for all new buildings to be nearly zero-energy by 2020. The odds are in the EU’s favour to claim its resurgence in climate change issue.
Domestically, while the focus should be on building consensus among
member states to adopt a common EU stance and policies, the already
existing strategic partnership with countries, including India and other
emerging powers, can provide necessary forums to
institutionalise its leadership role globally.
While the EU has been reaching out to China in terms of renewable
technology and policy coherence, the engagement with other players has
been restrictive and limited to commerce and trade largely. Both India
and EU are natural partners and both share common
concern over issues of global governance like climate change.
Opportunities must be explored and harnessed in climate and clean energy
by both the partners.
Regards,
Vijeta
Dr. (Ms) Vijeta Rattani
Climate Change Division
Centre for Science and Environment
41 Tughlaqabad Institutional Area
New Delhi- 110062
Office number- 011-29955125
Email-
vijeta@cseindia.org
Twitter: vijeta88
