The United States and India agreed on:
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ENHANCING BILATERAL CLIMATE CHANGE COOPERATION: President Obama and Prime Minister Modi, stressing the importance of working together and with other countries on climate change, plan to cooperate closely this year to achieve a successful and ambitious agreement in Paris.
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COOPERATING ON HYDROFLUROCARBONS (HFCS): Building on their prior understandings from September 2014 concerning the phasedown of HFCs, the leaders agreed to cooperate on making concrete progress in the Montreal Protocol this year.
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EXPANDING PARTNERSHIP TO ADVANCE CLEAN ENERGY RESEARCH (PACE-R): Both sides renewed their commitment to the U.S.-India Joint Clean Energy Research and Development Center (PACE-R), a 125 million program jointly funded by the U.S. and Indian governments and private sector. The renewal includes extending funding for three existing research tracks of solar energy, building energy efficiency, and advanced biofuels for five years and launching a new track on smart grid and grid storage technology.
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ACCELERATING CLEAN ENERGY FINANCE: Prime Minister Modi emphasized India's ongoing efforts to create a market environment that will promote trade and investment in this sector. USAID will install a field investment officer in India this summer, backed by a transactions team to help mobilize private capital for the clean energy sector. In February, The United States will host the Clean Energy Finance Forum and government-to-government Clean Energy Finance Task Force to help overcome strategic barriers to accelerating institutional and private financing. The Department of Commerce will launch a trade mission on clean energy. The Export-Import Bank is exploring potential projects for its MOU with the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency for up to 1 billion in clean energy financing. OPIC plans to build on its existing portfolio of 227 million in renewable energy and continue to identify potential projects to support utility-scale growth and off-grid energy access.
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LAUNCHING AIR QUALITY COOPERATION: The United States will implement EPA's AIRNow-International program and megacities partnerships, focused on disseminating information to help urban residents reduce their exposure to harmful levels of air pollution, and enable urban policy planners to implement corrective strategies for improving ambient air quality in cities, allowing for estimates of health and climate change co-benefits of these strategies.
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STARTING TECHNICAL COOPERATION ON HEAVY-DUTY VEHICLES AND TRANSPORTATION FUELS: Both countries will discuss how to reduce the environmental and emissions impact of heavy-duty vehicles and transportation fuels by working to adopt cleaner fuels, emissions, and efficiency standards in India.
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INITIATING CLIMATE RESILIENCE TOOL DEVELOPMENT: Jointly undertaking a partnership on climate resilience that will work to downscale international climate models for the Indian sub-continent to much higher resolution than currently available, assess climate risks at the sub-national level, work with local technical institutes on capacity building, and engage local decision-makers in the process of addressing climate information needs and informing planning and climate resilient sustainable development, including for India's State Action Plans.
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PROMOTING SUPER-EFFICIENT OFF-GRID APPLIANCES: Strengthening our joint commitment to promote super-efficient off-grid appliances that can dramatically extend the range of energy services available to those lacking electricity, the United States and India intend to support the deployment of these resources to help meet India's energy access goals.
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TRANSFORMING THE MARKET FOR EFFICIENT AND CLIMATE-FRIENDLY COOLING: The United States will develop an Advanced Cooling Challenge to catalyze the development of super-efficient, climate-friendly, and cost-effective cooling solutions optimized to perform in India's climates.
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DEMONSTRATING CLEAN ENERGY INITIATIVES ON THE GROUND: The United States will work with India on additional pilot programs and other collaborative projects, including developing an innovative renewable energy storage project and hosting a smart grid workshop.
The two countries concluded negotiations on a five-year MOU on Energy Security, Clean Energy and Climate Change to carry this work forward, to be signed as early as possible at a mutually-agreed upon date.
