During last week’s historic signing of the Paris Climate Agreement at the United Nations, the first meeting of the International Solar Alliance also took place.
120 countries signed onto the Alliance when it launched at the Paris Climate Summit. Led by India and France, the goal is to mobilize $1 trillion to deploy 1 terawatt of solar by 2030.
The declaration they signed says, "United by our objective to significantly augment solar power generation in our countries, we intend making joint efforts through innovative policies, projects, programmes, capacity building measures and financial instruments to mobilize more than 1000 Billion US Dollars of investments that are needed by 2030 for the massive deployment of affordable solar energy."
25 countries attended the first meeting last week, including the US, France, India, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Namibia, Uganda, Seychelles Djibouti, Surinam, Zambia, Mali, Seychelles and Sri Lanka.
They are starting with two programs: Affordable finance at scale; and Scaling solar applications for agricultural use.
Attendees agreed on the goals of "accelerating massive deployment of solar energy at various scales"; aggregating demand for solar projects to scale them up and lower costs; cooperating on reducing financing costs and on R&D; and improving integration of solar into national energy systems.
As an initial step, countries will begin analyzing and sharing the needs and obstacles to deployment at scale.
A parallel effort by the private sector, The Terrawatt Initiative, will help the International Solar Alliance Alliance mobilize financial and corporate support, and to establish "proper regulatory conditions for massive deployment of competitive solar."
"Solar technology is evolving, costs are coming down and grid connectivity is improving. The dream of universal access to clean energy is becoming more real. This will be the foundation of the new economy of the new century," says India Prime Minister Modi.
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