This week, in connection with President Biden‘s Leaders Summit on climate, the United States’ official trade finance agency, the Export-Import Bank (EXIM), announced that it is establishing a Chair’s Council on Climate. The new subcommittee (under the agency’s official Advisory Committee) will advise EXIM on ways to better support U.S. exporters and American jobs in clean energy.
EXIM will consider the council’s advice in its efforts to meet congressional mandates to support and promote environmentally beneficial U.S. exports, along with renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy storage exports.
Membership of the Chair’s Council on Climate is anticipated to include representatives from clean energy and related U.S. industries, the financial sector, trade associations, labor, academia, think tanks and other private and public sector organizations.
“Export finance plays a vital role in supporting the growth of renewable energy globally, particularly in international markets where official export credit can make a difference by mobilizing private sector financing, while, at the same time, supporting U.S. industry and jobs,” said EXIM Acting First Vice President and Vice Chairman James C. Cruse. “EXIM remains committed to our charter mandate to promote and support environmentally beneficial exports, so we are pleased to establish this Chair’s Council on Climate. Advice from stakeholders will provide expertise and insights from a wide range of sectors in order to better fulfill our mandates on renewable energy and our mission to support U.S. jobs and competitiveness.”
EXIM will also partner with the U.S. Department of State and financing agencies including the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to build a strong pipeline of projects in these sectors through expanded use of existing government resources.
India partnership
Also in connection with the Climate Summit, this week the U.S. State Department issued a joint statement with the government of India, launching the “U.S.-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership.”
The announcement follows a visit by U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry to India, where he and Prime Minister Modi affirmed that the United States and India would collaborate on a 2030 agenda for clean technologies and climate action.
Both the United States and India have set ambitious 2030 targets for climate action and clean energy. In its new nationally determined contribution, the United States has set an economy-wide target of reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions by 50–52 percent below 2005 levels in 2030.
As part of its climate mitigation efforts, India has set a target of installing 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030. Through the Partnership, the United States and India are firmly committed to working together in achieving their ambitious climate and clean energy targets and to strengthening bilateral collaboration across climate and clean energy.
The Partnership will aim to mobilize finance and speed clean energy deployment; demonstrate and scale innovative clean technologies needed to decarbonize sectors including industry, transportation, power, and buildings; and build capacity to measure, manage, and adapt to the risks of climate-related impacts.
