India seeks cooperation of African countries on international solar alliance

India expects more African nations to sign the frame work for International Solar Alliance (ISA) and speed up the ratification process to make ISA a legal entity.  On the sidelines of the 52nd Annual Meetings of the African Development bank (AfBD) being held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat from 22 to 26 May, the Framework Agreement of ISA would be kept open for signature.  A highly placed source from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said,”The ratification process for the ISA is among the fastest so far, given that usually such legal procedures take 5-6 years. But we are hoping the countries will ratify ISA in another 5-6 months as has also been said by minister Piyush Goyal.”

India will be accepting ratification documents from those countries that have completed the ratification process. So far 25 countries have signed the Framework Agreement of ISA. Guatemala, Djibouti, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Chad, Comoros, Mauritius, Yemen and Somalia have agreed to sign the Framework Agreement.

India, France, Nauru and Fiji have already ratified the Framework Agreement of ISA. Mauritius and Comoros would be ratifying the Framework Agreement shortly. The ISA as a legal entity will come into being once 15 countries ratify the Framework Agreement. The ISA is an alliance of more than 120 countries, most of them being sunshine countries, which come either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The alliance’s primary objective is work for efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. This initiative was first proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech in November 2015 at Paris Climate Summit. This is the first time that the Annual Meetings of AfDB are being held in India. These Meetings are the Bank’s largest annual event and serve to raise the profile of the institution on the global stage.