Gurgaon

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande today laid the foundation stone for an interim secretariat of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), an initiative by the two countries to harness solar energy in over 100 nations.

Speaking at the event here, Hollande said France wants to build the Post-Paris Agreement world with India, as he called the ISA as “India’s gift” to the world in combating climate change. He also pledged 300 million Euros to develop solar energy in next five years.

Unveiling the plaque, Modi said although the ISA will be headquartered in India, it will function as a global and independent institution meant to benefit entire mankind.

“While ISA is headquartered in Gurgaon, this will be not be an institution of India alone. This will be an global institution and will function independently.

“Like United Nations and WHO, it also belongs to the whole world,” Modi said, adding that people from different countries will discharge various responsibilities for this initiative to give some sort of a “heritage” to the world.

Modi who travelled with Hollande from Delhi to Gurgaon, a satellite city of the national capital, in a Metro train said that the move is also aimed at sending a message that such environment friendly steps could also be ways to fight global warming.

Modi emphasised that India and France share much in common about their goal to resolve the issue of global warming.

Stressing that developing countries had their developmental needs, Modi said this cannot be done without the use of energy and hence the dilemma before the world is how to protect the environment while meeting the developmental needs of such nations.

“Energy has become an integral part of a nation’s development journey. For the past one year, the world has been deliberating on how to combat global warming. This alliance ensures the world gets more energy and there is also a focus on innovation,” he said.

French President Hollande said that a “new chapter” opens for nations to utilise the power of the sun.

ISA, an initiative of Modi, is an alliance of 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.

India offered to host ISA at the premises of NISE and has offered a 5-acre land. Three floors of the Surya Bhawan of NISE have been offered for starting the interim Secretariat.

Reaffirming India’s “responsibility” in this “life-saving mission”, Modi said solar was the way to control global emissions and cut down the use of fossil fuel.

“The solution to combat one energy problem (of fossil fuels) lies in another (solar),” he said.

Narrating the sequence of events at CoP21, he referred to the new initiatives launched during the summit, the ISA and Mission Innovation, and said three nations – USA, France and India – took the initiative of innovation to protect the environment while the other initiative, which will impact generations, is the solar alliance.

Hollande said while France has signed an agreement for participating in the creation of 100 Smart Cities programme, it will also link the initiative with the Solar Alliance by helping to increase public lighting and supplying solar electricity to these cities.

He said France will also mobilise its companies, its research and technological institutions and diplomatic network to help achieve the objective of International Solar Alliance and work with India on the vital issue of cost of financing.

“I would like to announce here that the French Development Agency will allocate 300 million euros to developing solar energy over the next five years in order to finance the initial projects.

“Our role now is to implement the agreement, to launch projects without waiting for its entry into force in 2020. The Solar Alliance is meeting this objective. It is India’s gift to the world for combating climate change. France is proud to lead it with you. France wants to build the Post-Paris Agreement world with India. The ISA paves the way for this,” Hollande said.

Yesterday, three MoUs were signed under the ‘Smart city’ theme for city-specific urban development between French Development Agency (AFD) with the state governments for the cities of Chandigarh, Nagpur and Puducherry.

“France will take part in the ‘100 Smart Cities’ Programme launched by the Indian government. We can link this initiative to the Solar Alliance projects by helping to increase public lighting and on a broader level, supplying solar electricity to these cities.

“We can also work on rural electrification, decentralised management of energy access and energy efficiency,” Hollande said.

Noting that ISA intends to bring together 122 nations that have more than 300 days of sunlight in a year by exploring alternative non-conventional energy which will have no ill-impacts on environment, Modi also touched upon the threat of submergence that island nations could face due to rise in sea level as a consequence of global warming.

Underlining that India has an ancient tradition of living in harmony with nature, he said that India is making efforts to save humanity from the environmental crisis and stressed that the setting up of ISA will go a long way in meeting this goal.

“A new message (about environment conservation) is being sent from Haryana’s soil from where the universal message of Gita emanated from the battlefield of Kurukshetra,” he said.

Referring to India’s ambitious target on the renewable energy front, Modi said that India already has an installed capacity of 5,000 MW of solar energy and this much production in a short time was a result of the commitment that India has made for the welfare of world in this respect.

Noting that India has set itself a target of scaling up the production of renewable energy to the tune of 175 GW, Modi said that Gigawatt is a new word for the country as it earlier it could not think beyond the terminology of Megawatt.

India has offered a contribution of Rs 100 crore (around USD 15 million) for creating ISA corpus fund and in addition to that, it has also offered training support for ISA member countries at the NISE.

PTI