PM Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the International Solar Alliance summit
India and France co-hosted the first International Solar Alliance summit in New Delhi today. President Ram Nath Kovind co-hosted the summit with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Macron
inaugurated the summit. The International Solar Alliance is a treaty based international inter-governmental alliance of 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The aim of the alliance is to promote solar energy and reduce the use of fossil fuels in sunshine-rich countries. The summit will focus on various aspects of promoting solar energy, such as credit mechanism, crowd funding and sharing of technological breakthroughs, in 121 countries associated with ISA. The alliance, backed by the World Bank, has aimed at mobilising $1 trillion for International Solar Alliance projects needed by 2030 for massive deployment of solar energy.
23 heads of state, senior representatives of many countries, including deputy prime ministers and energy ministries are attending today's summit. Various projects being prepared by different countries in areas including rural electrification, off grid solar power, water supply and irrigation are being discussed. India, which founded the International Solar Alliance backed by France after the Paris accord on climate change, has set an ambitious target for itself - of having 100 GW of solar energy capacities by 2022. India is already close to achieving 20 GW in the current fiscal and plans to auction 30 GW solar projects each in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Here are the LIVE Updates from the International Solar Alliance summit in New Delhi:
Highlights Of PM Narendra Modi's Speech At The International Solar Alliance Summit In New DelhiPrime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the International Solar Alliance summit in New Delhi today. During the inauguration, the prime minister addressed the delegates attending the event.
Here are the highlights of PM Modi's speech at the solar summit:- This tiny plant of the International Solar Alliance could not be planted without the joint efforts and commitments of all of you present here. I am very grateful to France and to you all for making this possible. Of the 121 potential countries, 61 have already joined the International Solar Alliance. 32 have ratified the Framework Agreement.
- In India, the Vedas considered the Sun as the spirit of the world thousands of years ago. In India, the Sun is considered to be the nutrition needed to sustain life. Today, when we are looking for a way to tackle the challenge of Climate Change, then we have to look at the balanced and holistic view of India's ancient philosophy.
- In India, we have started the world's largest renewable energy expansion program. We will generate 175 GW of electricity from renewable sources of energy by 2022, of which 100 GW will be from solar power. We have already achieved 20 GW installed solar power.
- To promote the use of solar energy, the availability of technology and development, economic resources, reduction in prices, development of storage technology, mass manufacturing, and innovation require a complete eco system.
- What is going to be the way forward is something all we have to think. I have ten action points in my mind that I want to share with you all. First and foremost, we have to ensure that better and affordable solar technology is available to all and accessible to everyone. We need to increase the proportion of solar power in our energy mix.
- We have to encourage innovation so that solar solutions can be provided for various needs. We will have to provide concessional financing and low risk finance for solar projects.
- Regulatory aspects and standards have to be developed which should adopt solar solutions and speed up their development.
- Developing countries will have to develop consultancy support for bankable solar projects.
- We need to create a comprehensive network of centers of excellence.
- View our solar energy policy with the totality of development, in order to get more and more contributions from SDGs.
- We should make the International Solar Alliance secretariat strong and professional.
- If you want all of humanity to benefit, then I am confident that we all will come together and think like one family, so that we are able to bring unity and solidarity in our objectives and efforts.
- This is the way we will be able to achieve what ancient monks used to pray for when they said 'Tamaso ma Jyatirgamaya' which means "From darkness, lead me to light".
Watch: PM Narendra Modi's Speech At The International Solar Alliance Summit In New Delhi
In January, India reached 20 GW solar energy capacity, according to clean energy market tracker Mercom India; China's generating capacity is 130 gw. Sixty per cent of India's installed capacity comes from coal, while actual generation of electricity is 75 per cent. Renewables contribute 18 per cent. The rest comes from nuclear, biomass and other sources. China has the same energy mix, but its level of industrialisation enables it to deploy renewables generation infrastructure more effectively, while India is still catching up.
India has succeeded in lowering solar power tariffs, but there are still some hurdles to the International Solar Alliance, with only 55 of 121 prospective countries signing up for the alliance. France is the only developed economy to support the ISA, although the World Bank has promised its support while India is taking fast strides. In the meantime, trade wars over solar technology with countries like the US continue.
Parties to the joint declaration are the ISA, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, African Development Bank, Green Climate Fund, International Energy Agency, and New Development Bank. India plans to generate 1,000 gigawatt (gw) solar energy and raise $1 trillion by 2030. This move could establish India as a major player in geopolitics by taking a leadership role in the critical area of climate change policy and business.
Solar energy generation costs a lot of money and emerging markets find it difficult to fund the projects. But with a joint declaration signed yesterday in the presence of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley between the International Solar Alliance and major funding agencies, the issue of support has been solved to a great extent.
France And India To Sign Technology Transfer Agreement On Solar Energy
France and India are likely to sign a technology transfer agreement on solar energy at the International Solar Alliance summit. The ISA seeks to act as a platform for solar energy-rich nations to increase clean energy generation. It was launched in November 2015 at the Paris climate summit by PM Modi and former French President Francois Hollande. Till now, the International Solar Alliance has been in its founding stages and only launched a credit risk mitigation initiative.
India, which founded the International Solar Alliance backed by France after the Paris accord on climate change, has set an ambitious target for itself - of having 100 GW of solar energy capacities by 2022. India is already close to achieving 20 GW in the current fiscal and plans to auction 30 GW solar projects each in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
For today's summit, 23 heads of state, senior representatives of many countries, including deputy prime ministers and energy ministries have confirmed their participation. Today's summit will discuss various projects being prepared by different countries in areas including rural electrification, off grid solar power, water supply and irrigation.
The alliance, backed by the World Bank, has aimed at mobilising $1 trillion for International Solar Alliance projects needed by 2030 for massive deployment of solar energy.
The summit will focus on various aspects of promoting solar energy, such as credit mechanism, crowd funding and sharing of technological breakthroughs, in 121 countries associated with ISA.
The aim of the alliance is to promote solar energy and reduce the use of fossil fuels in sunshine-rich countries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron will inaugurate the summit. The International Solar Alliance is a treaty based international inter-governmental alliance of 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
India and France will co-host the first International Solar Alliance summit in New Delhi today. President Ram Nath Kovind will co-host the summit with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.