Modi, Macron accelerate global solar energy drive
Urge nations to boost investment in renewable energy
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged leaders from 33 countries on Sunday to ensure concessional financing for promoting solar energy and boost investment in renewable energy to fight climate change.
Modi by his side, French President Emmanuel Macron, who offered an extra $861.5 million by 2022 for solar projects in developing countries, called for scaling up efforts to promote renewable energy and took a dig at US President Donald Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate deal.
Modi and Macron co-chaired the founding conference of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), an initiative the two countries launched coinciding with the 2015 Paris climate meet which has so far been ratified by 30 countries. A total of 62 countries signed up for the alliance.
Addressing the gathering, Modi said India would generate 175 gigawatts (GW) of electricity from renewable sources by 2022, more than double the country’s existing renewable energy capacity.
Presenting a 10-point action plan, Modi said, “We have to provide concessional financing and less risky funds for solar projects” as he stressed on making solar technology affordable available to all nations, raising the share of electricity generated from photovoltaic cells in the energy mix and framing regulations and standards to support the initiative.
In agreement, Macron said $1 trillion will be needed to achieve one terawatt (TW) of solar power capacity by 2030 and pointed out there are financing and regulatory hurdles for achieving the target. He said the government, the private sector and civil society should come together to address this challenge.
As Macron hailed the “solar mamas”, a group of women trained as solar engineers, he said they had continued their mission to promote solar energy even after “some countries decided “just to leave the floor and leave the Paris agreement”.
President Trump announced last June that the US was withdrawing from the Paris accord, signed by some 200 countries in December 2015 in their bid to curb greenhouse gas emissions.