India re-elected as president of International Solar Alliance

News: India and France were re-elected as president and co-president at the third assembly session of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) for a term of two years.

Facts:

Key Highlights from the Summit:

• CSCA: The assembly approved the initiative of the ISA Secretariat in institutionalizing ISA’s engagement with the private and public corporate sector through the Coalition for Sustainable Climate Action(CSCA).
• Visvesvaraya award: The assembly conferred the Visvesvaraya award which 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.
• ISA CARES: In the wake of the global pandemic, ISA had set up ISA CARES, an initiative dedicated to deployment of solar energy in the healthcare sector in ISA Member countries.The initiative aims to solarize one primary health sector in each district of the target Member countries.
• Solar Risk Mitigation Initiative: It is an initiative of World Bank in partnership with ISA, Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and International Renewable Energy Agency(IRENA).It aims to support countries in developing sustainable solar programs that will attract private investments and so reduce reliance on public finances.
• STAR-C (Solar Technology Application Resource-Center): It is an initiative of ISA with the aim of building a network of technical training and research centers in order to promote knowledge dissemination and capacity-building with regards to solar energy and infrastructure projects.

Additional Facts:

• International Solar Alliance(ISA): It is a treaty-based international intergovernmental organization jointly launched by India and France on the side-lines of the 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.