20 nations ink framework pact of solar alliance as process begins

MARRAKECH: Over 20 countries, including Brazil and France, have become signatories to the framework agreement of the International Solar Alliance – an initiative that is the brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The framework agreement of International Solar Alliance (ISA) was opened for signatures here yesterday on the sidelines of COP22 with Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave saying that with this legal framework in place, the ISA will be a major international body headquartered in India. Over 20 countries, including Brazil and France, became signatories to it soon after the process began, an Environment Ministry official said.

Indian climate experts termed it as a "good" initiative which will aggregate demand, improve quality and reduce cost of solar energy in developing countries but cautioned that achieving these objectives will require countries to have "confidence" in ISA.

"The Framework Agreement of ISA was opened for signature in Marrakech on the sidelines of the COP22 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This will make ISA an innovative, action oriented and sui generis international and inter-governmental treatybased organisation that will be registered under Article 102 of the UN charter," an official statement said.

ISA was jointly launched by Prime Minister Modi and French President Francois Hollande at the COP21 in Paris last year where representatives from around 70 countries including more than 30 Heads of the States and government participated.

ISA is an initiative by India where an alliance of 121 solar resource-rich countries lying fully or partially between the tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn, have come together.

The Framework Agreement will be kept open as many more countries are expected to join the ISA in the coming weeks, the statement said. During the ceremony, Dave thanked the countries for their continued support for concretising the concept of ISA and reaching today's milestone in the shortest possible time.