The ISA(International Solar Alliance) is an Indian initiative , for promoting solar energy, jointly launched by PM Narendra Modi and the president of France on 30th November 2015 in Paris, on the sidelines of COP-21, the UN climate conference.
It is an alliance of more than 121 countries, most of them being sunshine countries, which come either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Headquarters :- Gwal Pahari, Gurgaon,Haryana
The alliance’s primary objective is work for efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
So far, 19 countries are part of the pact — Bangladesh, Comoros, Fiji, France, Ghana, Guinea, India, Mali, Mauritius, Nauru, Niger, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Tuvalu, Australia, Cuba, Malawi and Peru.
The ISA, also sees itself as on a mission to mobilise more than $1000 billion in investments needed by 2030 for “massive deployment” of solar energy, pave the way for future technologies adapted to the needs of moving to a fossil-free future and keep global temperatures from rising above 2 degree centig. by the end of the century.
India has committed itself to having 175,000 MW of renewable energy in the grid by 2022.
As part of the agreement, India will contribute $27 million (Rs. 175.5 crore approx) to the ISA for creating corpus, building infrastructure and recurring expenditure over five years from 2016-17 to 2020-21.
In addition, public sector undertakings of the Government of India, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), have made a contribution of $1 million (Rs. 6.5 crore) each for creating the ISA corpus fund.