ISA instrumental in transforming global solar landscape: India

International Solar Alliance (ISA) will be instrumental in transforming the global solar energy landscape, Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave said here today, after over 20 countries signed the framework agreement of the alliance.
"We firmly believe that ISA will become instrumental in transforming the global solar energy landscapes," Dave said at the signing ceremony of Framework Agreement on ISA here.
Noting that the idea behind the ISA is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to bring clean and affordable energy within the reach of all, he said it has become possible due to the continued support for concretizing this concept and reaching the milestone in the shortest possible time.

He said that within 11 months of launch, ISA activities have increased significantly, and many initiatives are under implementation.
"With the legal framework in place, ISA will be a major international body headquartered in India," he said.
Over 20 nations have signed the framework agreement and the pact will be kept open as many more countries are expected to join it in the coming weeks.

The framework agreement was opened for signature yesterday on the sidelines of the ongoing CoP22 here and will make ISA an innovative, action oriented and sui generis international and intergovernmental Treaty-based organisation that will be registered under Article 102 of the UN charter, an official statement said.

The framework provides for membership open to the nations between tropics (fully or partially) who are also UN members.
The ISA structure will consist of two tiers in the form of an assembly and secretariat and partner country status will be granted to other countries (not within tropics) by the decision of ISA assembly.
The framework will enter into force with ratification by 15 countries. An important aspect is striving to keep about the operating costs minimal and therefore not necessitate mandatory contributions, the statement said.
Dave said that creating common buyers' market for solar finance, technology, innovation, capacity building and others will lead to higher quality, lower costs, products better tailored to needs, collaborative innovation, and technology ownership.

ISA is an initiative by India wherein an alliance of 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn have come together.
It was jointly launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande on November 30, 2015 at Paris on the sidelines of CoP21.
Representatives from around 70 countries including more than 30 Heads of the State and government participated in the ISA launch ceremony.
India has offered a contribution of Rs 175 crore for creating ISA corpus fund and for meeting the cost of ISA secretariat which is coming up in New Delhi for the initial five years.