CHASING THE SUN: INDIA'S “INTERNATIONAL SOLAR ALLIANCE” IN THE POST-COVID WORLD

Recently, India welcomed the CLMV countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA) as well as the Resilient Supply Chain Initiative by India, the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) as per the statement of the Minister of State for External Affairs, Government of India (GOI).

- PREETHI AMARESH*

The ISA is an alliance of 121 nations launched by India, most of them being sunshine nations that lie either wholly or partially between the ‘Tropic of Cancer’ and the ‘Tropic of Capricorn’. In COP 25 held in 2019, India called for more expeditious development of the ISA. The purpose is to provide clean and low-cost solar power in solar-rich nations to make them self-reliant and energy secure. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that ISA was India’s “gift to the world” in the battle against climate change. In the United Nations (U.N) climate meeting at Poland in 2018, the European Union (EU) and India led ISA acknowledged a collective declaration, that climate change activists say could support India reach its renewable energy aim by 2022.