All UN members can join International Solar Alliance:MEA

News: An amendment made in the International Solar Alliance(ISA) agreement has allowed all 192 member countries of the United Nations to join the Alliance.

Earlier, the alliance was only open to the solar resource-rich countries situated between the tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn.

Facts:

• International Solar Alliance(ISA): It is a multilateral forum jointly launched by India and France on the side-lines of the 21st Conference of Parties(COP 21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2015.
• Aim: To work for efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
• Objectives: 
  • To collectively address key common challenges to scale up solar energy applications in line with their needs
  • To mobilize investments of more than USD 1000 billion by 2030;
  • To bring about a major decrease in the cost of solar energy
  • To scale up applications of solar technologies in member countries and facilitate collaborative research and development (R&D).
• Members: Till now, 87 countries have signed the Framework Agreement of the ISA and of these 67 have deposited their instruments of ratification.
• Headquarters: Gurugram, India.