Third Assembly of the International Solar Alliance

Question : Which countries were re-elected as the President and Co- President of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) for a term of two years at the virtual meeting of the Third Assembly held on 14 October ?
(a) India and France
(b) China and United States
(c) Switzerland and Germany
(d) Saudi Arabia and South Africa
Answer (a)
Related facts

• India and France were re-elected as the President and Co- President of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) for a term of two years at the virtual meeting of the Third Assembly held on 14 October.
• The Third Assembly has been attended by 34 ISA Members ministers. 53 Member countries and 5 Signatory and Prospective Member countries participated to the Assembly.
• India’s Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister(R.K.Singh) welcomed the seventh initiative on heating and cooling to be introduced for discussion in the Third Assembly.
• He is the president of ISA third assembly.
• Four new Vice-Presidents were also chosen to represent the four regions of ISA. These are as below —

Initiatives of the ISA Secretariat

The Assembly also approved the initiatives of the ISA Secretariat in institutionalizing 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.

Solar Energy

• Solar Energy has come a long way in last 5 years and is now the fastest growing energy source globally.
• Solar energy is already contributing around 2.8% of global electricity ,and if trends were to continue, by 2030, solar will become most important source of energy for electricity production in large part of the world. Various activities and programmes initiated by ISA since the 2nd Assembly
• Six programmes and two projects are now underway covering various aspects of solar energy. A robust pipeline of more than US$ 5 Billion has been developed for solar energy applications to meet lighting, irrigation, drinking water and productive energy requirement of the ISA member countries, which have so far been largely deprived of modern energy services.
• ISA has aggregated a demand for more than 270,000 solar pumps across 22 countries, more than 1 GW of Solar Rooftop across 11 countries, and more than 10GW of Solar Mini-grids across 9 countries under its respective programmes. Recently ISA has initiated programmes for segregation of demand for 47 million Home Power Systems which will not only meet subsistence energy needs of the rural households but will also contribute to improving health services and availability of portable water.

France’s involvement

• The Co-President of the Assembly Ms Barbara Pompili, France’s Minister 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 € has been committed to concrete projects.
• France has also supported the collaboration with the World Bank to mobilise financing: a facility “Sustainable Renewables Risk Mitigation Initiative” (SRMI) should help mobilize 18 billion € in private investment to finance more than 10 gigawatts of solar projects, and a first project is being launched in Mozambique with the support of France and the European Union.

Commitment of the United Kingdom
According to Mr. Alok Sharma(The President of COP26), The UK planned to phase out coal within the next five years and to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Solar awards

• For the first time since the inception of the framework agreement of ISA, Solar awards were conferred on countries of the region as well as institutions working for solar. The assembly witnessed the conferment of the Visvesvaraya award which recognizes the countries with maximum floating solar capacity in each of the four regions of ISA.
• The award carries an amount of 12,330 USD as prize money, a scroll and a certificate.
• The awards went to Japan for the Asia Pacific region and the Netherlands for Europe and Others region.

Kalpana Chawla awards

• The Haryana Chief Minister, Shri M. L. Khattar announced the Kalpana Chawla awards named after the American astronaut of Indian origin, to Dr.Bhim Singh from IIT Delhi (India) and Dr.Aaesha Alnuaimi from Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (United Arab Emirates).
• The awards recognise outstanding contribution of scientists and engineers working in the field of solar energy.

Diwakar award

• The Diwakar award instituted by ISA out of the contribution made by India’s Minister for Railways and Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal of 25,000 USD received by him from the University of Pennsylvania, has been awarded to Arpan Institute (Haryana) and Arushi Society.

• The award recognizes organisations & institutions that have been working for the benefit of differently-abled people and have maximised the use of solar energy in the host country.
  Work with WRI(World Resources Institute) & Vision of One Sun, One World, One Grid
• Third assembly welcomed the move of the ISA to work with WRI to develop a roadmap for mobilization of USD 1 Trillion by 2030.
  The Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and Climate Works Foundation providing the required financial and technical assistance for preparation of the Roadmap.
  The roadmap will also analyse the potential for mobilising further investments in solar energy going beyond solar power projects to solar energy applications in transportation and cooling and heating and for implementing the vision of One Sun, One World, One Grid.

The ISA

• The ISA is an initiative that was launched by the Prime Minister of India and the President of France on 30 November 2015 at Paris, France on the side-lines of the COP-21. The overarching objective of the ISA is to collectively address key common challenges to the scaling up of solar energy in ISA member countries.

By —- Pankaj Pandey.

Link:
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1664423