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 ISA’s third assembly on Wednesday.
An official statement said that four new Vice-Presidents were also chosen to represent the four regions of ISA. The representatives of Fiji and Nauru for Asia Pacific, Mauritius and Niger for Africa, the UK and the Netherlands for Europe and others, and Cuba and Guyana for Latin America and Caribbean assumed the vice-presidency.
The assembly also approved the initiatives of the ISA Secretariat in institutionalising ISA’s engagement with private and public sectors through the Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action (CSCA). Ten public sector organisations in India presented a cheque for $1 million each at the assembly, the statement added.
Speaking in the plenary, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power and New and Renewable Energy RK Singh said: “Solar energy is already contributing around 2.8 per cent of global electricity, and if trends were to continue, by 2030, solar will become the most important source of energy for electricity production in large parts of the world.”
Singh is also the President of ISA. He said that six programmes and two projects are now under way, covering various aspects of solar energy.
“A robust pipeline of more than $5 billion has been developed for solar energy applications to meet lighting, irrigation, drinking water and productive energy requirements of the ISA member-countries, which have so far been largely deprived of modern energy services,” the statement added.