It began with a well-aimed dig. Emmanuel Macron, president of France, began his address at the launch of the first International Solar Alliance summit by mentioning it was the outcome of the Paris Accord, 2015, and even as “some left the floor” others decided to act and keep acting. The reference to Donald Trump pulling the US out of the climate deal, which happened within days of Macron becoming president, is clearly a sore point with the young leader.
Macron had been vastly relieved when Narendra Modi, two days after Trump's announcement last year, met him and said India was not just committed to the accord but would also “do more”. He paid Modi a rich tribute by saying at the summit on Sunday that the world was observing India now, marvelling at the speed with which it had upped the capacity of renewables in two years from 29 gigawatts to 63 gigawatts. And of course, Macron paid Modi the ultimate tribute, addressing him not as Mr Modi, but as “Narendra”.
A beaming Modi, the force behind the alliance which is the first multilateral treaty-based organisation to be headquartered in India, said that by 2022, India planned to generate 175 gigawatts of electricity through renewable sources, of which 100 gigawatts would be solar. He said that seven million children in India were already using solar lamps for studying, and that solar lighting for street lamps was picking up. He, however, said that the potential of solar use should be explored beyond lighting to areas of cooking, solar pumps and transport solutions in the research and development sector. He announced that India would soon launch a Solar Technology Mission, bringing together government, technological and educational agencies to develop R&D for increasing solar power use.
The two leaders agreed that the ISA had an important role in the need for a “solar revolution” as Modi put it. Macron said that the ISA should be a place where technology should meet expectations. He pledged the commitment of the French National Institute for Solar Energy towards this goal. Modi said India would sponsor 500 training slots for ISA nations in solar technology. He also proposed a 10-point action plan for the ISA which included suggestions such as providing developing countries with consultancy solutions for solar energy use, creating a network of centres of excellence across the ISA nations and the need to increase the component of solar power in the energy mix.
Of the 121 nations which are situated between the two tropics and are, therefore, solar rich, 61 have joined the alliance and 32 have even ratified the framework agreement of the treaty. Most of the member nations are poor countries with huge development needs and low access to finances and technology.
India is among the leaders in the region, with some standard of solar technology already in place. It has been running a successful Solar Mamas project at the Barefoot College, Tilonia, Rajasthan, training illiterate rural women from African, South American and Pacific nations in making solar panels, so that they can return and power up and empower their villages. The two countries in the alliance right now, which can provide the technology for scaling up and storage, are Australia and France.