India and France Re-elected President & Co-President of ISA at 3rd Assembly

Romania Joins As The 118th Member Country Of International Solar Alliance

At the Third Assembly of ISA, India and France were re-elected as the President and Co-President of the alliance for a term of two years.

The Third Assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), held virtually on October 14, 2020, was attended by 34 ISA member ministers, 53 member countries, and 5 signatory and prospective member countries. During the assembly, India and France were re-elected as the President and Co-President of the alliance for a term of two years.

Along with the re-election of India and France to the leading roles, four new vice-presidents were also chosen to represent the four regions of ISA. The representatives of Fiji & Nauru for Asia Pacific Region; Mauritius & Niger for Africa Region; UK & Netherlands for Europe and others Region, and Cuba and Guyana for Latin America and Caribbean Region assumed the vice presidency.

The assembly also approved the initiatives of the ISA Secretariat in institutionalising ISA’s engagement with the private and public corporate sector through the Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action (CSCA). Ten public sector organisations in India presented a cheque for 1 million USD each at the assembly.

Addressing the assembly, President of the ISA assembly, India’s Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister, R.K. Singh, appreciated the Alliance Members coming together to work for combating climate change. He welcomed the seventh initiative on heating and cooling to be introduced for discussion in the Third Assembly.

In his speech, Singh said that solar energy has come a long way in the last 5 years and is now the fastest-growing energy source globally. He said, “solar energy is already contributing around 2.8 percent of global electricity, and if trends were to continue, by 2030, solar will become the most important source of energy for electricity production in large part of the world.”

He further highlighted the various activities and programmes initiated by ISA since the 2nd Assembly.

According to Singh, a robust pipeline of more than USD 5 billion has been developed for solar energy applications to meet the lighting, irrigation, drinking water, and productive energy requirement of the ISA member countries, which have so far been largely deprived of modern energy services. Furthermore, ISA has aggregated demand for more than 270,000 solar pumps across 22 countries, more than 1 GW of solar rooftop across 11 countries, and more than 10 GW of solar mini-grids across 9 countries under its respective programmes.

Recently, the alliance has also initiated programmes for segregation of demand for 47 million Home Power Systems which will not only meet the subsistence energy needs of the rural households but will also contribute to improving health services and availability of portable water.

The Co-President of the Assembly – Barbara Pompili, France’s Minister for Ecological Transition underlined that ISA played an essential role to help redirect funding towards renewable energies, particularly in developing countries, and take up the challenge of energy at the service of all. She reiterated France’s involvement: pointing out that of the 1.5 billion euros of financing France committed for solar projects in ISA member states up until 2022, 1.15 billion euros has been committed to concrete projects.