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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron at the International Solar Alliance Founding Conference in New Delhi yesterday.
French President Emmanuel Macron today said USD 1 trillion will be needed to achieve one terawatt (TW) of solar power capacity by 2030. Speaking alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the founding conference of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), he said there are financing and regulation hurdles for achieving the target which need to be cleared by government, private sector and civil society coming together.
Without any names, he referred to countries quitting the historic Paris Climate agreement and said ISA nations came together to "deliver complete results". The oblique reference was to US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, which was signed by nearly 200 countries in Dec 2015 in an effort to curb global greenhouse gas emission and limit global warming to within 2 degrees Celsius.
Macron said countries represented at ISA represent three-fourths of the world population. As much as 20-50% of the population do not have access to power, he said. The joint goal is to have 1 TW of solar energy by 2020 for which "we need USD 1,000 bn," he said.
PM for concessional financing of solar projects
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today called for concessional financing and less-risky funds for solar projects to raise the share of solar power in the energy basket, provide cheaper electricity and cut carbon emissions.
Speaking at the founding conference of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), he said India will generate 175 gigawatts (GW) of electricity from renewable energy sources by 2022. This would be more than double the present renewable energy capacity and would be enough to overtake renewable expansion in the European Union for the first time. He said better and cheaper solar technology should be easily available to all nations. "We have to increase the share of solar in energy mix," he said.