The 6th Assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) was convened in New Delhi on October 31, presided over by Raj Kumar Singh, Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy. India serves as the President of the ISA Assembly.
India and France were re-elected as President and Co-President of the ISA at the fifth general assembly of the body.
Ministers from 20 countries and delegates from across 116 Member and Signatory countries participated in the Assembly.
In his opening remarks, Minister said that the ISA is steadfast in its commitment to Member Countries to make solar as the energy source of choice. He stated that renewable energy has the potential to supply 65 percent of the world’s total electricity by 2030 and decarbonise 90 percent of the power sector by 2050.
Co-President of the Assembly, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, France’s Minister of State for Development, Francophonie, and International Partnerships, emphasized France’s commitment to the ISA.
Addressing a joint press conference along with Ministers of member countries, Singh informed that the 6th Assembly of ISA has decided to increase viability gap funding for projects from 10% up to 35%. The grant provided under the mechanism is USD 150,000 or 10% of the project cost (whichever is lower), per country per project. we will increase the viability gap funding to be in the range of 10% to 35% of the project cost, depending on the capacity and needs of the countries and their respective projects. This will enable more investments to flow into Africa.
Minister further said that the ISA has emerged as a force for good in the world, in its pursuit of the twin goals of helping energy transition and energy access. “The ISA is one of the most critical organizations as the world takes on the challenge of global warming.
He inaugurated four projects set up with ISA’s assistance. Those include solarization of the parliament building of Malawi, the solarization of two rural health care centres in Fiji, Installation of one solar powered cold storage of capacity five tons for the benefit of its agricultural stakeholders at La Digue Island, Seychelles, and solarisation of the Nawai Junior Secondary school (JSS) in Kiribati.
The 6th Assembly of the ISA demonstrated the commitment of member countries to harnessing solar energy to address global energy and environmental challenges, the release also said.
ISA is facilitating over 9.5 GW of solar applications in 55 developing countries, including LDCs and SIDS, and have already provided training to nearly 4000 people across the developing world on ways to make a living out of supporting solar energy.
The Assembly is the apex decision-making body of ISA, in which each Member Country is represented. This body makes decisions concerning the implementation of the ISA’s Framework Agreement and coordinated actions to be taken to achieve its objective. The Assembly meets annually at the ministerial level at the ISA’s seat.