EU helps design India-initiated solar alliance's logo

New Delhi    :  The European Union (EU) on Friday transferred the logo of the India-initiated International Solar Alliance (ISA), designed by two European artists, to the ISA Secretariat here.

According to an EU statement, EU Ambassador to India Tomasz Kozlowski, ISA Interim Director General Upendra Tripathy and Secretary in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) Anand Kumar were present at the logo-transferring ceremony.

"The ISA logo was designed and developed by EU experts Andrzej Aswitniewski and Marek Zaborowski under the European Union technical assistant project for MNRE," the statement said.

Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then French President Francois Hollande at the Paris climate summit in 2015, the ISA was conceived as a coalition of solar resource-rich countries to address their special energy needs and provide a platform to collaborate on dealing with the identified gaps through a common, agreed approach.

It is open to all 121 prospective member countries falling between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

The ISA logo transferred on Friday consists of 121 dots, each dot representing one of the 121 counties who can be part of the alliance with shared ambition to reduce the cost of solar finance and technology, mobilise over $1,000 billion of investments needed by 2030 for massive deployment of solar energy, and to pave the way for future technologies adapted to the needs, according to Friday's EU statement.

"Sustainable development is at the heart of EU-India relations and we are well advanced in our clean energy and climate partnership," Ambassador Kozlowski said at the ceremony.

"The EU and India are committed to implementing the Paris (Climate) Agreement and are collaborating closely in the area of off-shore wind, solar parks, roof-top solar, urbanisation, circular economy, waste management. We are looking at formalising our support to the ISA in the coming months."

In his remarks, Tripathy said that closer cooperation between the EU and the ISA demonstrates the shared commitment to tackle climate change.

"Solar power has huge potential to provide affordable and clean energy in solar rich countries," he said.

"Working with the European Union is crucial to mobilise climate finance and share technical expertise. The European Union's unique experience of successfully supporting renewable energy development in its member countries as well as in the world will enhance the efforts of the ISA in the years ahead."

India has 20 GW of installed solar capacity - one of the fastest growing in the world. The country has increased its solar power capacity by about eight times over the past four years.

India's wind power generation capacity is 32.8 GW. It aims to achieve 175 GW of clean energy by 2022, of which 100 GW will be solar.

The EU statement said that taking the EU-India partnership forward, the continental bloc will also develop an online knowledge sharing platform/repository called "infopedia" for ISA, which will promote access to solar power in a regional and sub-regional context among the ISA member countries.

"The EU is also supporting ISA through the European Investment Bank which is also the largest climate financier in the world," it stated.