Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt announced Norway’s membership of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) during her official visit to India.

Norway and India have a long tradition of cooperation in a variety of fields, including a number of joint projects on climate change and the environment. Participation in the ISA will further strengthen these efforts.

Norway can offer expertise in areas such as electrification, smart grids and renewable energy financing.

Norwegian participation in the clean energy sphere in India is expanding, particularly in the private sector. 

Membership of the ISA will increase the visibility of India as a market for Norwegian companies. 

In addition, Norfund (the Norwegian Investment Fund for developing countries) recently gave the green light for new investments in wind and solar energy in India. 

International Solar Alliance

• International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an inter-governmental treaty-based organisation with a global mandate to catalyse solar growth by helping to reduce the cost of financing and technology.

• The ISA was jointly launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande on November 30, 2015, in Paris on the sidelines of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the UNFCCC.

• The ISA Framework Agreement was opened for signature on November 15, 2016, in Marrakech, Morocco, on the sidelines of COP22.

• On March 11, 2018, Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron co-hosted the founding conference of the International Solar Alliance (ISA).

• Membership is open to those solar resource-rich states that lie fully or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and are members of the UN.

• ISA was conceived as a coalition of solar-resource-rich countries (which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn) to address their special energy needs. 

• The vision and mission of the ISA is to provide a dedicated platform for cooperation among solar-resource-rich countries, through which the global community, including governments, bilateral and multilateral organisations, corporates, industry, and other stakeholders, can contribute to help achieve the common goal of increasing the use and quality of solar energy in meeting energy needs of prospective ISA member countries in a safe, convenient, affordable, equitable and sustainable manner.

• At present, 105 countries are signatories to the ISA Framework Agreement, of which 86 countries have submitted the necessary instruments of ratification to become full members of the ISA.

• 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 now perceived as key to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and objectives of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Objectives of ISA:

• To address obstacles that stand in the way of rapid and massive scale-up of solar energy.

• To undertake innovative and concerted efforts for reducing the cost of finance and cost of technology for immediate deployment of competitive solar generation.

• To mobilise more than $1,000 billion of investments by 2030. 

• Reduce the cost of finance to increase investments in solar energy in member countries by promoting innovative financial mechanisms and mobilising finance from institutions.

• Scale up applications of solar technologies in member countries.

• Facilitate collaborative research and development (R&D) activities in solar energy technologies among member countries.

• Promote a common cyber platform for networking, cooperation and exchange of ideas among member countries.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store