International Solar Alliance (ISA) : Third Assembly of ISA 2020

Context: 

Recently, 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 the Third Assembly. 

  • New Vice Presidents for the four regions announced. 
  • ISA Solar Awards conferred for the first time. 
ISA


 

Major Highlights: 

  • ISA’s engagement with the private and public corporate sector through the Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action (CSCA). 
  • Ten public sector organisations in India presented a cheque for 1 million USD each at the assembly. 
  • The Alliance Members coming together to work for combating climate change. 
  • Solar energy is already contributing around 2.8% of global electricity.
  • Solar energy applications to meet lighting, irrigation, drinking water and productive energy requirement of the ISA member countries. 
  • ISA has aggregated a demand for more than 270,000 solar pumps across 22 countries, more than 1 GW of Solar Rooftop across 11 countries, and more than 10GW of Solar Mini-grids across 9 countries under its respective programmes 
  • Recently ISA has initiated programmes for segregation of demand for 47 million Home Power Systems for energy needs of the rural households. 
  • It will also contribute to improving health services and availability of portable water in rural area. 
  • France and World Bank funding for “Sustainable Renewables Risk Mitigation Initiative” (SRMI), which helps to meet energy requirements in the developing countries. 
  • 5 key priorities of CoP-26: Adaptation and resilience, nature, energy transition, accelerating the move to zero-carbon road transport, and finance. 
  • Under CoP-26: The implementation of the One Sun One World One Grid initiative by providing human and financial resources. 


First Time ISA Solar Awards: 

Solar awards were conferred on countries of the region as well as institutions working for solar. The awards are –  

  • The Visvesvaraya Award: It recognizes the countries with maximum floating solar capacity in each of the four regions of ISA. The awards went to Japan for the Asia Pacific region and the Netherlands for Europe and Others region. 
  • The Kalpana Chawla Awards: It recognise outstanding contribution of scientists and engineers working in the field of solar energy. 
  • The Diwakar Award: The award recognizes organisations & institutions that have been working for the benefit of differently-abled people and have maximised the use of solar energy in the host country. 

The ISA assembly was presented the report prepared by the World Resources Institute (WRI). The report identifies the sources of funds, opportunities and constraints, in scaling up solar investments and the contribution of ISA in assisting Member countries. 


The ISA to work with WRI to develop a roadmap for mobilization of USD 1 Trillion by 2030. 

Due to recent global pandemic, ISA setting up ISA CARES, an initiative dedicated to deployment of solar energy in healthcare sector in LDC/SIDS ISA Member countries.  

  • The initiative aims to solarize one primary health sector in each district of the target Member       countries. 

The ISA has a launches Seventh Programme on Solarizing Heating and Cooling systems, which significantly draws its energy from traditional power sources. 

  • Demand for cooling alone outpaced solar deployment in 2017.  
  • Heating and cooling systems have scope to directly convert solar radiation and at higher efficiency levels. 

SAARC Development Fund: The Technical Assistance is proposed to be implemented jointly by the ISA and Asian Development Bank. 


The ISA has recently signed a tripartite agreement with the World Bank and the Government of India and is now actively involved in preparing a vision and implementation plan for One Sun One World One Grid Initiative to harness the power of inter-connected grids for enabling energy transition to a low-carbon world. 

 

About International Solar Alliance: 

The ISA is an initiative that was launched by the Prime Minister of India and the President of France on 30 November 2015 at Paris, France on the side-lines of the COP-21. There are 121 solar resource-rich countries lying fully or partially between the tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn as prospective members. 


 Headquartered: The ISA is headquartered in Gurugram India.


Objective: 

  • The ISA is to collectively address key common challenges to the scaling up of solar energy in ISA member countries.  
  • It also aims to undertake joint efforts required to reduce the cost of finance and the cost of technology, mobilize investments needed for massive deployment of solar energy, and pave the way for future technologies adapted to the needs. 

 Members: Till now, 75 countries have signed and ratified ISA framework agreement.


ISA has been positioned to help create the conditions that would make funding, developing and deploying solar applications on a large scale a reality.  

 

ISA is perceived as a key organisation working towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and objectives of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.  

 

ISA Assemblies: 

  1. The First Assembly of the ISA was held from 2 to 5 October 2018 in Greater Noida, India.  
  2. The Second Assembly of the ISA was convened from 30 October to 1 November 2019 at New Delhi, India. 78 countries participated in this Assembly.  
  3. The Third Assembly of the ISA was convened from 14 to 16 October 2020 in virtual mode. 



UPSC Prelims based Questions:
  1. Recently, ISA appointed its president and co- president for a term of ______?
  2. The second ISA Assembly was held in______?
  3. What is the objective of ISA?

UPSC CS Mains based Questions:
  1. How ISA is related to Climate Change? Discuss.
  2. Critically analyse the ISA.
  3. What are the benefits and challenges of the ISA with respect to India?

Source: PIB

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