With 22 heads of states, including French President Emmanuel Macron, in attendance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spelt out India's commitment to act against climate change and start a 'global solar revolution' during the founding conference of International Solar Alliance (ISA) here on Sunday. A brainchild of India, the ISA was launched during the Paris climate change conference.
PM Modi made two major announcements during the ISA summit conference. India is going to provide a $1.4 billion financial assistance, through Lines of Credit (LoC), to 27 solar projects in 15 countries. The PM also announced the launch of a solar technology mission to bridge the technology gap in solar energy sector. "This mission will have an international focus and our government, technical and academic institutions, together, will promote research and development," PM Modi said.
Macron, too, announced that his government will provide 700 million euros ($861.5 million) in financial assistance by 2022 in the form of loans and donations for solar energy projects in developing countries.
This will be in addition to 300 million euros it had committed when France partnered India in launching the ISA in 2015. "Mr Prime Minister, You made a dream and we did it. It was about this International Solar Alliance. It was two years ago, it was just an idea at that time and we decided all together to act very quickly and today a big change," President Macron said.
The participating countries also adopted the Delhi Solar Agenda and committed to increase the share of solar power in their energy mix.
The ISA is a collaboration of 121 solar resource rich countries located between tropics and endeavours for technology transfer and financial co-operation. Out of 61 countries who have joined the alliance, 32 have signed and ratified the ISA framework.
