I2U2 To Create A Sustainability Stir

The primary goal is to formulate a joint venture partnership on storage facilities for energy renewable and a hybrid system to harness solar and wind power and create food corridors to face the emerging global crisis successfully.

It brought together four key world leaders, including Prime Ministers of India and Israel with United States President and President Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates. Several analysts question whether the I2U2 reflects similar objectives to the Quad that already plays a key role in the Indo -Pacific region. The Indian government news portal reported, “The I2U2 concept and the idea became a reality during the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the four countries held in October 2021”.

The objective of the I2U2 is to encourage joint investments in six mutually identified areas such as water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security and help bring in modern technology to develop infrastructure, pursue low carbon development pathways for industries, improve public health and promote the development of critical emerging and green technologies.

The new alliance is critically important against the backdrop of the global recession with increasingly high economic and political risks coupled with soaring fuel and food prices.

India will provide suitable land for food parks across the country that will come into being in collaboration with Israel, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

The Joint Statement of the I2U2 leaders outlined a plan for integrated food parks across India. The leaders of the I2U2 grouping – India, Israel, the UAE and the USA – announced on Thursday that they would bring in private capital for specific projects in the fields of water, energy, transportation, health, space and food security. The food parks aimed at cutting down food waste and spoilage are a few of the collaborations that the four countries declared.

At the end of the summit, the I2U2 leaders issued a joint statement.

The statement is as follows.

On July 14, 2022, we, the Heads of Government of India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States, convened for the first leaders’ meeting of the “I2U2” Group.  This unique grouping of countries aims to harness the vibrancy of our societies and entrepreneurial spirit to tackle some of the greatest challenges confronting our world, with a particular focus on joint investments and new initiatives in water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security.

We intend to mobilize private sector capital and expertise to modernize infrastructure, advance low carbon development pathways for our industries, improve public health and access to vaccines, advance physical connectivity between countries in the Middle East region, jointly create new solutions for waste treatment, explore joint financing opportunities, connect our startups to I2U2 investments, and promote the development of critical emerging and green technologies, all while ensuring near- and long-term food and energy security.

We reaffirm our support for the Abraham Accords and other peace and normalization arrangements with Israel.  We welcome the economic opportunities that flow from these historic developments, including for the advancement of economic cooperation in the Middle East and South Asia, and in particular for the promotion of sustainable investment amongst the I2U2 partners. We also welcome other new groupings of countries, such as the Negev Forum for regional cooperation, that recognize the unique contributions of each partner country, including Israel’s ability to serve as an innovation hub connecting new partners and hemispheres to strategically address challenges that are too great for any one country to manage alone.

Today’s inaugural I2U2 leaders’ meeting focused on the food security crisis and clean energy.

The leaders discussed innovative ways to ensure longer-term, more diversified food production and food delivery systems that can better manage global food shocks.

To this end, the I2U2 leaders highlighted the following initiatives:

Food Security:

The UAE – home to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and host of COP28 in 2023 – will invest USD 2 billion to develop a series of integrated food parks across India that will incorporate state-of-the-art climate-smart technologies to reduce food waste and spoilage, conserve fresh water, and employ renewable energy sources.

India will provide appropriate land for the project and will facilitate farmers’ integration into the food parks.

U.S. and Israeli private sectors will be invited to lend their expertise and offer innovative solutions that contribute to the overall sustainability of the project.  These investments will help maximize crop yields and, in turn, help tackle food insecurity in South Asia and the Middle East.

Clean Energy:

The I2U2 Group will advance a hybrid renewable energy project in India’s Gujarat State consisting of 300 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar capacity complemented by a battery energy storage system.  The U.S. Trade and Development Agency funded a feasibility study for the USD 330 million projects.  UAE-based companies are exploring opportunities to serve as critical knowledge and investment partners.  Israel and the United States intend to work with the UAE and India to highlight private sector opportunities.  Indian companies are keen to participate in this project and contribute to India’s goal of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030.  Such projects have the potential to make India a global hub for alternate supply chains in the renewable energy sector.

The leaders expressed their determination to leverage well-established markets to build more innovative, inclusive, and science-based solutions to enhance food security and sustainable food systems.  The leaders also welcomed India’s interest in joining the United States, the UAE, and Israel in the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate initiative (AIM for Climate).  They affirmed that these are only the first steps in a long-term strategic partnership to promote initiatives and investments that improve the movement of people and goods across hemispheres and increase sustainability and resilience through collaborative science and technology partnerships.