* UK, India launch plan to connect world’s power grids
* Part of broader ‘Breakthrough Agenda’ on green tech
* U.S., UAE launch sustainable agriculture plan (Adds context, investor comment)
By William James, Simon Jessop and Ross Kerber
GLASGOW/BOSTON, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Britain and India launched a plan on Tuesday to improve connections between the world’s electricity power grids to accelerate the transition to greener energy.
Linking the grids would allow parts of the world with excess renewable power to send it to areas with deficits. For instance, countries where the sun has set could draw power from others still able to generate solar electricity.
Launched at the COP26 climate talks https://www.reuters.com/business/cop in Scotland, the “Green Grids Initiative” was backed by more than 80 countries and could set a model for how rich countries help poorer ones to reduce their emissions and meet the goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial norms.
“If the world has to move to a clean and green future, these interconnected transnational grids are going to be critical solutions,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement.
Modi and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had previously outlined the trans-national grid effort. On Monday also Modi said his country would reach net zero https://www.reuters.com/world/india/modi-says-india-targets-net-zero-emissions-by-2070-2021-11-01 carbon emissions by 2070, two decades later than scientists say is needed.
But although seen as sceptical of efforts to slow climate change, Modi has attended the climate conference, while leaders of other major emitters, including China and Russia, are not attending in person.
The grids plan showed Modi willing to move the world’s second-most populous nation away from fossil fuels as long as developed countries help, Julie Gorte, senior vice president for sustainable investing at Impax Asset Management, said.
“Left to their own devices India is going to build coal plants,” she said.
The plan is part of a broader effort to speed up the roll out of affordable low-carbon technology, covering more than 70% of the global economy.
Announcing the first five goals of the plan, dubbed the “Glasgow Breakthroughs”, Johnson flagged targets to push clean power, zero emissions autos, near-zero emission steel, low-carbon hydrogen and climate-resilient agriculture.
The United States and the United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, launched an initiative, with $4 billion in backing, to help farming https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-uae-lead-4-bln-effort-help-farming-adapt-climate-change-2021-11-02 adapt to climate change.
(Reporting by William James and Simon Jessop in Glasgow, Scotland and Ross Kerber in Boston; editing by Barbara Lewis)
