German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is going to visit India later this month. On Wednesday, Germany’s special envoy for international climate action, Jennifer Morgan, said that Germany would like India to take the lead on issues like renewable energy and the circular economy while it holds the G20 presidency.
“We (India and Germany) want to find out what we can do together. Also, we could work with other people in G20. Morgan told the media, “We want to see the same kind of push that the Indian presidency is bringing to the G20 on these kinds of technologies and the circular economy.”
Morgan has met with the secretaries of Coal, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, and other departments, as well as the G20 Sherpa, while she is there. “We talked about storage, renewable energy, and the grid.” We haven’t made any final decisions yet, but we’ve found some areas we want to look at again,” she said about her meetings.
Morgan said that Germany has learned “the hard way” not to depend on “one country” for all of its fossil fuel needs because of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Germany has decided to stop getting oil from Russia over time. Morgan said that Germany “takes climate justice very seriously” when asked if it could be brought up in the G20. Climate justice is something that India has talked about in the past during international climate talks. “There are some things that can be talked about at the G20, but I think the United Nations is also an important place to talk about things,” she said.
Morgan said that when she met with Indian officials, they talked about how important it is to increase the use of renewable energy.
“I think what I’ve heard from them is a whole set of goals and plans for increasing the use of solar and offshore wind power, among other forms of renewable energy.” the important question of how storage needs to play a bigger role for renewables and storage to work together… “It’s important to do that so we can stop using fossil fuels here,” she said.
When asked about climate finance and what developed countries need to do, Morgan said that the West has promised $100 billion for climate finance. “You need to remember that the developed countries promised $100 billion at Copenhagen, but they haven’t met that promise yet. Germany is very serious about our money for climate change… We need to step up, but I don’t think that’s the whole story… “We really need to figure out how to get the trillions out,” she said.
