India has called upon more countries to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA) initiated by it to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels to meet the rising energy demand. Speaking at a Ministerial Plenary yesterday on Solar and the Small Island Developing States – Making the Sun Shine Brighter, on the sidelines of COP-25 climate conference which is underway in Madrid, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said, four years ago in Paris, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande launched the International Solar Alliance (ISA), it was a new beginning. But, now that the four-year-old child is running fast, but it must run faster because the need of the hour is that we must tap solar energy in a big way.
Mr. Javadekar expressed happiness that over 83 countries joined the ISA in just four years. Listing out the aggressive manner in which India has expanded its renewable energy mix, the Minister pointed out that five years ago, India had just 3 Giga Watt (of solar energy). Today, it has 33 GW of solar energy and it is huge. He said, India is going to achieve 100 GW of solar energy by 2022 i.e. in the next three years it will add 67 GW more of solar energy. The Minister said, there is a sharp fall in the prices of solar energy due to enhancement of capacity. The price of solar energy used to be 20 rupees per unit. Now, it is just 10 per cent of it. He said, all countries need to do it because the target of UNFCCC is to do away with use of all fossil fuels, not only coal.
The 25th session of Conference of Parties under the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC COP25), started on 2nd of December. ISA is an alliance of 121 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.
