There is an ongoing effort from the US administration to set-up the Clean Energy and Power Transmission Partnership (CEPT) with India. This setup will be a feature of the energy based collaboration between India and USA. It means that in the coming days, weeks and months, one can expect gradual increase in the investment by USA in the Indian energy space. CEPT would ensure facilitation of joint research and development in the field of clean energy technologies in between the US corporations investing in India and the labs carrying out the research.  Bob Menendez, a member of the Senate foreign relations committee, presented the legislation named Prioritising Clean Energy and Climate Cooperation Act 2020 that suggests setting up of the CEPT.

This step is being taken by the USA keeping in mind the growing need of electricity in India in the context of the dangers of climate change. Bob Menendez said that he is driving ahead the legislation as he is confident about the capabilities of both the countries to achieve milestones by working on some common challenges.

Some of the important provisions of the Prioritising Clean Energy and Climate Cooperation Act 2020 are as follows:

i: CEPT will be the main forum for coordination and funding on clean energy technologies and energy transmissions.

ii: It will guide the promotion of partnerships between Indian and US universities and the government research labs in the field of clean energy technologies.

iii: It will promote private investment from US in the clean energy sector in India.

iv: It will lead to lawful sharing of intellectual property between the India and US private sector bodies in the field of clean energy technologies.

v: It will promote the technical assistance and sharing of expertise in the electricity grid and energy efficiency matters in India.

vi: It will lead to promotion of development of new renewable energy generation capacity in India.

vii: It will need the administration to submit multi-year strategy to the US congress to successfully implement the CEPTP.

This legislation has the features of the clean development mechanism under Kyoto protocol which US exited, and  which leads the advanced countries to develop climate change mitigating projects in the developing countries. It also resembles to some extent the Joint implementation flexibility mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol.