JOIN US300m Euro to boost solar projects
France on Monday has committed 300 million Euros to fund initial projects in solar energy as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande set the ball rolling on international solar alliance – a group of nations between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn with abundant sun light.
An alliance of 120 nations which receive 300 sunlit days in a year, this league of nations was launched last year at the Paris climate summit, where the world pledged for a shift towards greener energy sources, sun light being the top most of them.
French development agency AFD Group would provide initial fund amounting to 300 million Euros, which is in line with the financing of 2 billion Euros for the development of renewable energies, announced by France during the Paris climate summit.
“The initial projects must begin quickly,” Hollande said on Monday. “For the past one year, the world has been deliberating on how to combat global warming. This alliance ensures the world gets more energy and there is also a focus on innovation,” Modi added.
India has offered to set up the ISA secretariat, which would be located within the premise of the National Institute of Solar Energy, Gurgaon. In a green message to the world, the two leaders boarded Delhi Metro to reach the NISE campus on the outskirts of campus.
They left their cavalcade and boarded a Delhi metro special train from the Race Course Road station at 3.16 pm. Modi, Hollande, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius and other officials rode for 30 minutes and got down at Arjangarh station from where they proceeded to the NISE.
On their return, they again boarded the train from Guru Dronacharaya station and deboarded at Jorbagh after another 30 minutes of metro ride. Two special trains were arranged for the VIPs without disturbing the public service, says Anuj Dayal, Delhi Metro spokesperson.
Official twitter handles, @Elysee and @PMOIndia, posted pictures of the journey. In one of the pictures, Modi and Hollande are seen standing at the platform of the Race Course station.