As Obama and Modi Meet, 4 Opportunities for US-India Action on Clean Energy and Climate

A briefing by the World Resources Institute outlining four strategic opportunities for the United States and India to collaborate on clean energy and climate action during a meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Modi in January 2015.

• India is the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, yet its per capita emissions are approximately 2 tons, which is significantly lower than the United States (20 tons per person) and China (8 tons per person). Additionally, India's cumulative emissions since 1990 represent only 4 percent of the global total, compared to 16 percent for the United States and 14 percent for China.
• The Indian government has set ambitious targets to improve energy access and transition to renewables, including a goal to provide 24-hour electricity to all citizens by 2019 and a target to increase solar power capacity to 100 gigawatts (GW) by 2022, which is 30 times the level at the time of writing.
• The document proposes four specific areas for US-India cooperation: first, creating a commercial strategy to increase US investment in India's renewable energy targets and resolve issues regarding solar panel sourcing; second, leading a global clean energy collaborative to foster research and technology access, such as battery storage; third, expanding a partnership for climate resilience through a major initiative for universal access to climate impact data; and fourth, establishing a direct high-level communication line to support the December 2015 Paris climate agreement negotiations.
• India faces significant infrastructure challenges, with 300 million people (roughly 25 percent of the population) lacking electricity access. Furthermore, urban populations are projected to grow from 380 million to nearly 600 million by 2030, prompting the Modi government to initiate a plan for "100 smart cities" to improve urban development.

APA

World Resources Institute (2015). As Obama and Modi Meet, 4 Opportunities for US-India Action on Clean Energy and Climate. https://www.wri.org/insights/obama-and-modi-meet-4-opportunities-us-india-action-clean-energy-and-climate

Chicago

World Resources Institute. As Obama and Modi Meet, 4 Opportunities for US-India Action on Clean Energy and Climate. 2015. https://www.wri.org/insights/obama-and-modi-meet-4-opportunities-us-india-action-clean-energy-and-climate.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=As Obama and Modi Meet, 4 Opportunities for US-India Action on Clean Energy and Climate |date=21 January 2015 |url=https://www.wri.org/insights/obama-and-modi-meet-4-opportunities-us-india-action-clean-energy-and-climate |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2015obama, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{As Obama and Modi Meet, 4 Opportunities for US-India Action on Clean Energy and Climate}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2015}, month = jan, url = {https://www.wri.org/insights/obama-and-modi-meet-4-opportunities-us-india-action-clean-energy-and-climate}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }