Macron hails solar power at gathering of leaders in New Delhi
French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday pledged hundreds of millions of euros for solar projects in developing countries, as world leaders met in India to promote greater investment in renewables.
Mr Macron, who in December warned that the global shift to a green energy future was too slow, said France would extend an extra €700 million (Dh3.16 billion) through loans and donations by 2022 for solar projects in emerging economies.
He did not mention United States President Donald Trump while speaking at the first meeting of the International Solar Alliance in New Delhi. But while hailing the Ssolar Mamas, a group of women trained as engineers, Mr Macron 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”.
Mr Trump announced in June that the US was withdrawing from the Paris accord, which aims to slow the rise in global temperature by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
France had already committed €300m to the initiative when it and India co-founded a global alliance in 2015, to unlock new cash for solar projects in sunny but poor nations.
“We need to remove all obstacles and scale up,” Mr Macron said at the launch of the alliance yesterday.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has committed to reducing his country’s carbon footprint through a huge increase in renewable energy, said it was vital that nations were not priced out. “We have to make sure that better and cost-effective solar technology is available to all,” Mr Modi told the gathering of investors and world leaders, from about 20 predominantly African nations. “We will have to increase solar in our energy mix.”
India, the world’s third-largest polluter, is undergoing spectacular growth in its solar sector and is on track to become one of the world’s largest clean energy markets. It pledged at the Paris climate summit in 2015 to satisfy at least 40 per cent of its energy needs from renewables by 2030, mainly through solar.
The energy-hungry country of 1.25 billion people is banking on solar to electrify homes for hundreds of millions of its poorest citizens, without adding to its emissions output.
Both Mr Modi and Mr Macron hope the alliance will spur US$1 trillion (Dh3.67 trillion) in solar spending by 2030 in 121 countries lacking investment in the sector.
These countries have “the paradox of being the sunniest in the world while enjoying the least solar energy”, said Segolene Royal, a former French minister who is in India as a special envoy for the alliance.
Mr Macron told world leaders in Paris in December that “we are losing the battle” against climate change and he urged faster action to combat global warming. He yesterday called on those from the private sector to engage more actively because “solar investments are becoming more profitable”.
Mr Macron and Mr Modi will open a 100-megawatt solar plant near Varanasi today. The French leader was to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra last night.