– His Excellency Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, led a UAE delegation in a visit to India to attend the First Assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) at the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) in India.
Co-hosted by India and France, the ISA First Assembly focused on emphasizing the importance of deploying solar energy solutions globally to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
In his speech, His Excellency Dr Al Zeyoudi valued India’s important role in forging new alliances to accelerate international efforts in this regard, in the forefront of which is the International Solar Alliance. He also praised the efforts made by the French presidency in recent years to mobilize global efforts to address the issue of climate change, and its contribution to arriving at the historic Paris Agreement.
His Excellency Al Zeyoudi said: “The UAE has a decade long history with renewable energy deployment, going back to the establishment of Masdar, our flagship renewable energy company in 2006. Subsequently in 2009, the UAE became host of the International Renewable Energy Agency - IRENA, the first international organization dedicated to promote renewable energy, which has been playing a significant role in facilitating renewable energy deployment around the world.”
He added: “We made the decision to invest in renewables because we believe that transitioning to renewable energy brings a range of positive changes, including enhanced energy security, new industry development, job creation and better health as a result of reduced emissions. Today, technological advancements and private-public partnerships have greatly contributed in driving costs down, making renewables one of the most economical energy options today. Solar energy is particularly attractive to the UAE, given the abundant land and solar resources in the country.”
On the sidelines of the ISA First Assembly, His Excellency Al Zeyoudi attended multiple bilateral meetings. He met with Raj Kumar Singh, India’s Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy, where they explored further areas of collaboration in the power sector. He also met with His Excellency Upendra Tripathy and congratulated him for his appointment as the first Director-General of the ISA, wishing him much success in further promoting solar energy.
The UAE is a founding member of the ISA, which was established by The Paris Declaration at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP 21) in 2015, where it was announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendera Modi and French President Francois Hollande. The UAE joined the Alliance by the end of October 2017, and was officially approved as a member last February.
So far, 26 countries have ratified and 58 countries have signed the ISA Framework Agreement. The ISA hosted the ‘International Solar Alliance Forum’ in Abu Dhabi on the sidelines of the Future World Energy Summit 2018.
The alliance includes more than 121 prospective member countries located either fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. It aims to help developing countries harness 1,000 GW of solar by 2030 by raising $1trillion, and arranging the associated technological assistance to support the goal.