India and France have launched a programme with $1 trillion potential to help developing countries harness fully their solar resources for a clean energy. Power Minister Piyush Goyal and French Environment Minister Segolene Royal announced that the solar finance programme that aims to lower the cost of finance and facilitate the flow of more than $1 trillion investment to members of the International Solar Alliance (ISA). Ministers and Representatives from over 25 countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Namibia, Uganda, Nigeria, Peru, Djibouti, Surinam, Zambia, Bolivia, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Mali, India, USA and France participated in the ISA event.

In order to accelerate massive deployment of solar energy at various scales in their countries, Ministers agreed to take concerted action through targeted Programmes launched on a voluntary basis, to better harmonize and aggregate the demand for Solar Finance, Mature Solar Technologies and Future solar technologies and capacity building, through strategic and collaborative solar R&D.

The ISA, which was launched at the Paris Climate Change Summit last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande, seeks to empower solar-rich countries located between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn, many of which have at least 300 days of sunshine, and share common challenges and opportunities.

During Hollande’s visit to India in January, the two leaders laid the foundation stone for the ISA headquarters in Gurgaon.