COP 25: India calls for speedier expansion of international solar alliance

Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said there was a need to speed up this alliance to trap solar energy in a big way

More countries should join the International Solar Alliance (ISA) to reduce dependence on fossil fuels to meet growing energy requirements, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said in Madrid on Monday.

Speaking at a ministerial plenary on the sidelines of the 25th session of the Conference of Parties under the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC COP25) in Madrid, Javadekar said there was a need to speed up this alliance to trap solar energy in a big way.

"Four years ago in Paris, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande launched the International Solar Alliance (ISA), it was a new beginning. Now I can say that the four-year-old child is running fast, but it must run faster because the need of the hour is that we must tap solar in a big way," the minister said.

The minister's statement was shared by the Union Environment Ministry here.

Expressing contentment over 83 countries joining the ISA in just four years, Javadekar said, "When ISA was launched, the idea was that all those countries who get more solar energy as they fall between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn should come together to create the consumers' own market.

"I must also congratulate you all as the International Solar Alliance has aggregated demand from various countries on Solar Agriculture Pumps and have floated a tender in which four parties have submitted their bids. I am sure that a best deal is on the cards and they will get it soon," he added.

Listing out the aggressive manner in which India has expanded its renewable energy mix, Javadekar pointed out that five years ago, India had just 3 GW of solar energy.

"Today, we have 33 GW of solar energy. It is huge," the ministry quoted him as saying.

The minister said India was going to achieve 100 GW of solar energy by 2022 i.e., in the next three years, it will add 67 GW more of solar energy.

He also pointed at the sharp fall in the prices of solar energy due to enhancement of capacity, saying, "The prices (of Solar Energy) used to be Rs 20 per unit. Now, it is just 10 per cent of it."

On the sidelines of UNFCCC COP25, Javadekar also held a bilateral meeting with the British delegation led by Minister for Climate Change, BEIS, Lord Duncan. Host of issues were discussed, ranging from the mechanism of adaptation, finance, technology and many other climate action-related issues.

A bilateral meeting with the Australian delegation led by Angus Tylor, minister of Energy and Emission Reduction, was also held earlier in the day.

COP 25, underway in the Spanish city, commenced on December 2 and will go on till December 13.