India, UAE & France Trilateral Cooperation Initiative

Context

• India joined UAE, and France for a trilateral Cooperation Initiative in fields including energy, defence, and economy.

About

• The trilateral was first discussed on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2022.
• The initiative will focus on
  • Nuclear and solar power
  • Climate change and biodiversity
  • Defence preparation 
  • Countering infectious diseases

Agenda of Trilateral Cooperation

• It will serve as a forum to promote the design and execution of cooperation projects in the fields of energy, with a focus on solar and nuclear energy.
• The initiative will also help in the fight against climate change and the protection of biodiversity, particularly in the Indian Ocean region.
• The three sides desired to cooperate in the field of circular economy under the aegis of India’s Mission LiFE.
• They agreed to expand their cooperation through initiatives such as the Mangrove Alliance for Climate led by the UAE and the Indo-Pacific Parks Partnership led by India and France.
• The countries have agreed to cooperate in defence preparation and in countering infectious diseases.
• It seeks to promote cooperation in multilateral organizations such as World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi-the Vaccine Alliance, Global Fund, and Unitaid. 
• They will cooperate to implement the One Health approach and support the development of local capacities in biomedical innovation and production within developing countries.

Global initiatives launched by India for Clean Energy

• Mission Life
  • It aims to mobilise at least one billion Indians and other global citizens to take individual and collective action for conserving the environment in the period 2022-28. It is piloted by NITI Aayog and implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change.
• International Solar Alliance (ISA)
  • ISA’s objective is to scale up solar energy and reduce the cost of solar power generation through the aggregation of demand for solar finance, technologies, innovation, research, and development, and capacity building.
• One sun, one world, one grid project (OSOWOG)
  • It is based on the vision of building and scaling inter-regional energy grids to share solar energy across the globe. It can be the solution to most of our global problems in the energy sector.
• India’s commitment at COP26 Glasgow summit
  • To take India’s non-fossil fuel energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030.
  • To bring down the carbon intensity of India by more than 45% by 2030.
  • India will achieve the target of net zero carbon emissions by 2070.
• Mission Innovation CleanTech Exchange
  • The network provides access to the expertise and market insights needed to support new technologies to access new markets globally.

Source: The Hindu