International Solar Alliance (ISA)

In News: For a second time, India has been elected as the President of the ISA for a term of two years. France has been re-elected as the Co-President of the ISA

About ISA

• The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an alliance of more than 122 countries initiated by India, most of them being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, now extended to all members of the UN.
• The Paris Declaration establishes ISA as an alliance dedicated to the promotion of solar energy among its member countries.
• Objectives: The ISA’s major objectives include global deployment of over 1,000GW of solar generation capacity and mobilisation of investment of over US$ 1000 billion into solar energy by 2030.
• When it entered into force? When the ISA Framework Agreement entered into force on December 6th, 2017, ISA formally became a de-jure treaty based International Intergovernmental Organization, headquartered at Gurugram, India.
• International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an alliance of solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
• ISA was jointly launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the then President of France Francois Hollande on November 30, 2015 in Paris, France on the side-lines of the 21st Conference of Parties (CoP 21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 
• The ISA Framework Agreement was opened for signature on November 15, 2016 in Marrakech, Morocco, on the side-lines of CoP-22.

Vision, Mission and Objective: 

• The vision and mission of the ISA are to provide a dedicated platform for cooperation among solar resource rich countries that lie completely or partially between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer. 
• Global stakeholders, including bilateral and multilateral organizations, corporates, and industry to make a positive contribution to assist and help achieve the common goals of increasing the use of solar energy in meeting energy needs of prospective ISA member countries in a safe, convenient, affordable, equitable and sustainable manner. 
• The objective of the ISA is to mobilize member countries, seek commitments from international organisations and mobilize private sector, to support rural and decentralised applications, access to affordable finance, island and village solar mini grids, rooftop installations, and solar e-mobility technologies.

Activities and programmes initiated by ISA 

• Six programmes and two projects are underway covering various aspects of solar energy 
• A robust pipeline of more than $5 Billion has been developed for solar energy applications to meet lighting, irrigation, drinking water and productive energy requirements of the ISA member countries 
• ISA has aggregated a demand for more than 2,70,000 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 
• It has framed a roadmap for mobilization of $1 Trillion by the year 2030

India’s Role:

• The Government of India has allotted 5 acres of land to the ISA in National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) campus, Gurugram and has released a sum of Rs. 160 crore, i.e. US$ 26 million for creating a corpus fund, building infrastructure and meeting day to day recurring expenditure of the ISA up to the year 2012-22.
• As per commitment, India will release additional Rs. 15 crore, i.e. US$ 2.1 million in the year 2020-21. In addition, various Public Sector Enterprises of Government of India have contributed US$ 8 million for augmenting ISA corpus fund.
• Apart from these, India has set aside US$ 2 Billion for solar projects in Africa out of the Government of India’s US$10 Billion concessional Line of Credit (LOC) for Africa.
• Exim Bank of India is implementing this line of credit in close coordination with ISA countries in Africa. 
• On the 24th September 2019, on the side-lines of the 74th UN General Assembly, India announced   allocation of US$ 12 million grant, and a concessional LOC of US$ 150 Million for Pacific Islands Developing States for undertaking solar, renewable energy and climate related projects.

France’s role:

• France uses its diplomatic network to bring the ISA’s priorities to the One Planet Summit, to all of the relevant multilateral bodies (the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Summit, COP25, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), the International Energy Agency (IAE), etc.) and to the multilateral development banks.
• France also mobilizes the private sector.
• The Syndicat des Energies Renouvelables (SER) and MEDEF International, along with their Indian counterparts, co-chair an international committee of chambers of commerce that makes recommendations to the ISA on the conditions that encourage private investment in solar energy.