Modi For Grand Global Solar Alliance

Modi For Grand Global Solar Alliance

Antalya (Turkey): India on Sunday, 15^th November 2015, pushed for its proposal for a grand alliance of solar-rich nations to make this key source of green power an integral part of people's lives.

It nudged the G20 to ensure finances and technology worth $100 billion are made available for countries to pursue clean energy during their development.

"At G20, we can play an effective role in supporting the multilateral goals of increasing research and development to develop affordable renewable energy. We must also ensure finance and technology is available to meet the universal global aspiration for clean energy," Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the G20 Summit here.

"We must meet the target of $100-billion goal per year by 2020," said the prime minister in this Mediterranean resort, ahead of the crucial meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP) in Paris from November 30 to December 11, under the aegis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The prime minister, who arrived here late Saturday from London, said India itself has agreed to do its bit for a clean-green world. This, by committing an additional capacity of 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022, cutting subsidies on fossil fuels, taxing the use of coal, and setting up a National Clean Energy Fund of $3 billion to promote clean technologies.

He said such a firm commitment was also made in its own Intended Nationally Determined Contributions for the Paris talks, in which New Delhi has pledged to cut emission levels by 33-35 percent over the next 15 years in an ambitious, fair and balanced commitment to protect the environment, married to the country's own agenda for sustainable development.

"We should shift from 'carbon credit' towards 'green credit'. When we speak of targets, we must not only reduce the use of fossil fuel, but also moderate our lifestyle. Development in harmony with nature is the goal of my proposal to launch, along with French President (Franois) Hollande, an alliance of solar-rich countries at the time of COP-21 meeting."

India is proposing what is called an International Agency for Solar Technologies and Applications (INSTA) to bring together nearly 125 countries rich in solar resources that lie between tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, notable from Africa and Asia, to pursue this clean, perennial and sustainable source of energy.