Union Power Minister RK Singh on Tuesday said that the International Solar Alliance (ISA) is a critical organization to take on the challenges of global warming.
Addressing the Press Conference of the 6th Session of the ISA Assembly, at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, R K Singh said “Climate Action” can only be worked unless we resolve the issue of energy access.
“We believe that Climate Action is just not happening unless we resolve the problem of energy access. Access first then transition or access using green energy” he further added.
R K Singh who is also the President of ISA, earlier inaugurated the 6th session of the ISA Alliance Assembly and also dedicated 4 solar Demonstration Projects to the countries of Malawi, Fiji, Kiribati, and Seychelles, installed under the ISA grant initiative.
Fiji has solarised two rural health care centers under the ISA cares initiative, whereas as solar-powered cold storage project of capacity 5 MT, is under implementation in Seychelles by the ISA fund.
Solarisation of the parliament building of the Republic of Malawi Solarisation of the Nawai Junior Secondary School (JSS) in the Republic of Kiribati, are the two other major initiatives undertaken under ISA.
Talking about the International Solar Alliance, he said it has a seminal role to play in energy transition given its focus on solar energy.
He said that said renewable energy sources can supply 65 per cent of the world’s total electricity by 2030 and as much as 90 per cent by 2050.
Currently, he informed that around 80 per cent of the global population resides in countries that depend on fossil fuel imports, totalling a staggering 6 billion people.
He stressed that the objective is to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030, aligning with the countries’ established targets and policies and expanding aspirations to include zero and low-emission technologies, adopting more blended finance and risk-sharing facilities in the renewable energy sector.
The Minister said the challenge lies in providing energy to the 750 million people who do not have access to energy.
“It is our mission in ISA to bring together to help these 750 million people. That is how we define our role – to help countries deprived of energy access, get access to energy” he said.
Speaking at the event, the Co-President of the Assembly, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, France’s Minister of State for Development said that as a critical initiative to fight climate change, the International Solar Alliance has made progress towards being an efficient and results-oriented organisation that is actively engaged in implementing its programmes on a global scale, significantly impacting the worldwide solar energy landscape.”
“Solar is the future source of energy and investment has been increased to 1 billion dollars per day. In the current geopolitical situation solar energy will play a crucial role in clean energy access” she added.
Chrysoula Zacharopoulou said that since COP21, India and France have been driving forces to develop the potential of renewable solar energy”.
Addressing the media, Director General of International Solar Alliance. Dr. Ajay Mathur said ISA is facilitating over 9.5 GW of solar
applications in 55 developing countries, including LDCs and SIDS, and have already provided training to nearly 4,000 people across the developing world on ways to make a living out of supporting solar energy.
“We urgently need to accelerate the build-up of solar energy, especially in developing countries and in applications that influence the daily lives of those without access to reliable energy – such as getting electricity from solar mini-grids, powering agricultural pumps, running cold storages, etc” he added.
During the three-day event the ministers from 20 countries and delegates from across 116 Member and Signatory countries are participating in the Assembly.
The focus areas of the summit are universalisation of energy access through solar mini-grids, mobilising finance for accelerated solar deployment, diversifying supply chains and manufacturing for solar.
The International Solar Alliance is an international organisation with 116 Member and Signatory countries. It works with governments to ease solar deployment and promote solar power as a sustainable transition to a carbon-neutral future. ISA’s mission is to unlock US$ 1 trillion of investments in solar by 2030 while reducing technology and its financing costs.
