New Delhi: The inauguration of the first General Assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) will take place on October 2, 2018 in Delhi, an MEA statement said here on Friday.
Mr Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, will also attend the joint inaugural ceremony of the First Assembly of the ISA.
An initiative and the brainchild of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, floated in 2016, the ISA is expected to aggregate demand, improve quality and reduce cost of solar energy in developing countries.
The Ministerial level Assembly of the ISA will be held in Greater Noida on October 3.
“The ISA is a major initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in contributing to the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement through rapid and massive deployment of solar energy,” the MEA said.
The Founding Conference of the ISA jointly hosted by Prime Minister Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron in New Delhi on March 11, 2018 represents a high water mark in the journey that aims to bring all countries together for cooperation on solar energy.
It may be recalled that during this Founding Conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced India’s commitment to extend nearly US$ 1.4 billion worth of lines of credit (LOCs) which will cover 27 projects in 15 countries especially in Africa.
A futuristic outcome document – the Delhi Solar Agenda – was also adopted.
New training slots under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme have also been started that are specifically geared towards capacity building in solar energy.
In connection with the forthcoming first General Assembly, T S Tirumurti, Secretary (Economic Relations) chaired a briefing meeting in the MEA on September 20, 2018 for more than fifty resident foreign Missions in New Delhi.
The MEA statement said that the Second RE-INVEST and Indian Ocean Rim Association Energy Ministers Meeting would also take place concurrently till October 5, 2018.
The UN Secretary General will also attend the 2nd RE-INVEST Conference and Energy Ministers Meet of Indian Ocean Rim Association of States (IORA) member countries.
Upendra Tripathy, Interim Director General of the ISA shared the efforts being taken by the ISA Secretariat for the first General Assembly. This was followed by a detailed presentation on the logistics arrangements for participating delegations.
Source: UNI
