PM Modi to launch solar alliance at Paris Climate Summit

The Paris climate summit to set to begin on Monday with the world leaders aiming to forge an elusive agreement to prevent the calamity of global warming, and end more than two decades of international bickering over greenhouse gas emissions. The world’s largest democracies - India and the United States - are divided over who should share the larger blame, and therefore do the most to mitigate, over gas emissions.

Updated on: Nov 30, 2015, 13:40:41 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, Paris

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The Paris climate summit to set to begin on Monday with the world leaders aiming to forge an elusive agreement to prevent the calamity of global warming, and end more than two decades of international bickering over greenhouse gas emissions. The world’s largest democracies - India and the United States - are divided over who should share the larger blame, and therefore do the most to mitigate, over gas emissions.

People participate in the The 100% Possible Climate March in Ottawa. Prime minster Modi is set to launch a global solar alliance on the sidelines of the Paris climate summit. (AFP Photo)

PM Modi is also set to announce an international solar alliance - an international renewable energy research and development initiative - on Monday in the presence of 30 heads of state, including French President Francois Hollande.

Read: All you need to know about the Paris climate talks

Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Centre for Energy, Environment, has said that the alliance could “inspire and support several developed and developing countries to advance on a clean energy pathway by lowering financing costs, developing common standards and facilitating R and D collaborations.”

Who would be part of the alliance?

Over 100 countries falling between tropics of Cancer and Capricorn have assured their participation in the alliance for which India will be providing the initial funding of Rs 175 crore.

What does it plan to achieve?

The alliance brings together sun-rich nations for a research and collaboration initiative that has the potential to change the face of future energy access. It will be a platform to benchmark low-cost solar solutions and will provide unique investment opportunity for the developing world.

What the alliance will do for India?

The initiative places India in a more assertive and constructive position on the international stage, no longer merely accepting the politics of climate change, but now shaping them via its diplomatic and geopolitical influence.

Its impact on Paris talks?

India can reflect the spirit of this initiative via its negotiations and seek committed funding for renewable energy, which would attract more investment than coal by 2019. A global climate agreement is crucial to ensure that the solar alliance delivers and provides certainty to investors on renewables, thereby lowering the risk and reducing the cost of capital.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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