Australia keen to work with India to accelerate transition to clean energy global economy
Chennai, Dec 15 (FN Agency) Australian Consul General Ms.Sarah Kirlew has said that Australia was keen to work with India to accelerate the transition to a clean energy global economy. “This partnership can go beyond just Australia and India to support the vulnerable communities to meet the challenges of climate impact including climate financing”, she said, in her address at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) ‘IITM Energy Summit’ here late last evening. The three-day summit is being held to enable Global Transformation to a Low Carbon Future through Industry-Academic Collaboration.
During this summit, IIT-Madras also launched a Global Energy Consortium to boost the progress towards the transformation to a Low Carbon Future. Highlighting the ‘Indo-Australia partnership for a carbon-neutral world,’ Ms. Sarah Kirlew said “this summit comes at a time when finding sustainable ways to use our energy reserves for global development and halting and addressing the impact of climate change are on top of the mind for many.” Emphasising on three key messages, she said Australia does have a strong domestic record of achievement in reducing emissions and a clear path to developing technology to do more. “Second, we want to work with India to accelerate the transition to a clean energy global economy and third, that partnership can go beyond just Australia and India to support vulnerable communities to meet the challenge of climate impact including climate financing.”
Pointing out that Australia’s Clean Energy Transition is happening at a world-leading rate, she said “Today, we receive more than one-third of our power from renewable energy…Scale is a challenge we face that requires a collaborative global approach.” “It is natural that Australia and India should work on it together given the strength already in our trade relationship on energy and resources. There is continued linkage between our researchers”, she added. Observing that IIT Madras has six projects with Australian institutions, Ms Sarah said “Australia and India can work together to benefit our region. Australia has increased its international climate financing commitment to USD two billion over the next five years to help developing countries in our region tackle the impact of climate change.”