Observer Status on Solar Alliance

Observer Status on Solar Alliance

Subject – IR

Context – UN confers Observer Status on Solar Alliance

Concept –

• The UN General Assembly has conferred Observer Status on the International Solar Alliance (ISA), a historic decision which India said would help provide for a well-defined cooperation between the alliance and the UN that would benefit global energy growth and development.
• The ISA was conceived as a joint effort by India and France to mobilise efforts against climate change through the deployment of solar energy solutions.
• It was presented by the leaders of the two countries at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Paris in 2015.
• The granting of Observer Status to ISA in the General Assembly would help provide for regular and well-defined cooperation between the Alliance and the United Nations that would benefit global energy growth and development.
• Observers have the right to speak at United Nations General Assembly meetings, but not to vote on resolutions.

International Solar Alliance (ISA)

• The ISA is an intergovernmental treaty-based organisation with a global mandate to catalyse solar growth by helping to reduce the cost of financing and technology.
• ISA is the nodal agency for implementing One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG), which seeks to transfer solar power generated in one region to feed the electricity demands of others.
• The Headquarters is in India with its Interim Secretariat being set up in Gurugram.
• United States of America has become the 101st member country to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA).

To know more about One Solar One Grid, please refer November 2021 DPN.