How the Quad can help climate action

• In the context of continuing uncertainty, new roles are emerging for multilateral groupings of countries.
• The countries of the Quad are unified in saving the planet from environmental degradation.
• The most commendable commitment is their focus on increasing the Indo-Pacific region’s resilience by improving critical climate information-sharing and disaster-resilient infrastructure.

Quad's efforts in this area include:

• The nations vowed to address the climate catastrophe and collaborate on future technologies at the Quad's first-ever in-person leaders' conference (held in the United States in 2021).
• Improve vital climate information exchange and disaster-resilient infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific region to increase the area's resilience to climate change.
• The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure(CDRI) is constructing a new technical facility to provide technical help to small island developing governments, as well as forming a Climate and Information Services Task Force.

Suggestions

• In technology, industry, and finance, the Quad can help to achieve an inclusive energy transition.
• They can give critical technology expertise to help achieve the energy transition goals set forward by organisations like the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and OSOWOG (One Sun One World One Grid).
• India is in a good position to supply the manufacturing infrastructure needed to develop these technologies.
• To replace China as the ""world's factory,"" it will need to replicate China's advantages of large-scale production at low costs.
• Quad has a role and an opportunity to promote capital investments in underdeveloped countries to help them transition to more sustainable energy sources.

About QUAD

• The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (also known as the Quad or QUAD) is a strategic dialogue between the United States, India, Japan and Australia
• The alliance dates back to 2004, when the four countries got together to coordinate humanitarian efforts following the tsunami.
• It first met in 2007 on the fringes of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with the goal of improving maritime cooperation between the four countries.
• Australia also participated in the Malabar Exercise in 2020 which is an annual trilateral naval exercise between the navies of India, Japan, and the USA which is held alternately in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
• In 2021, the US organised a virtual ministerial meeting where the leaders of the four Quad countries issued a “Spirit of the Quad” joint statement promoting a free, open rules-border, rooted in international law to advance security and combat threats both in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

Importance of QUAD

• Quad allows like-minded countries to exchange ideas and engage on projects of mutual interest.
• Members share a vision of an Indo-Pacific that is open and free.
• Each is active in development and economic projects, as well as maritime domain awareness and security.
• It is just one of many ways for India, Australia, Japan, and the United States to connect, and it should not be viewed as exclusive grouping