INDIA and the US have agreed to expand their energy partnership by adding emerging fuels to the list of areas of cooperation that previously included power and energy efficiency, oil and gas, renewable energy and sustainable growth, an official statement said.

This followed a ministerial meeting of the US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP) on Thursday evening.

“Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri co-chaired a virtual ministerial meeting with US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to launch the revamped US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP),” a statement from the Oil Ministry said.

The SCEP was launched in accordance with the US-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden at the Leaders’ Summit on Climate held in April this year. “The two sides announced the addition of a fifth Pillar on Emerging Fuels, which signals joint resolve to promote clean energy fuels,” it said.

It further added that “a new India-US Task Force on Biofuels was also announced to build on the scope of work on cooperation in biofuels sector.”

With this, the SCEP inter-Governmental engagement now spreads across five pillars of cooperation -- Power and Energy Efficiency, Responsible Oil and Gas, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Growth and Emerging Fuels.