India welcomes Congo into International Solar Alliance

Tags: International News

India has welcomed Congo into the International Solar Alliance.

An overview of the news

• According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement was signed by Raymond Serge Bell, Ambassador of the Republic of Congo in the presence of Joint Secretary (Economic Diplomacy).

International Solar Alliance 

• It is a treaty-based intergovernmental organization whose primary function is to promote solar development by reducing the cost of financing and technology.

• It is the nodal agency to implement 'One Sun, One World, One Grid'.

• It aims to transfer the solar energy generated in a specific region to meet the electricity demand of another region.

• It was launched by the Prime Minister of India and the President of France on 30 November 2015 at the Conference of the Parties (COP-21) to the UNFCCC in France (Paris) along with 121 solar resource rich nations.

• Its key objectives include achieving a global potential of over 1000 GW of solar power generation capacity and mobilising about $1000 billion to invest in solar energy by 2030.

• Member-113 countries have signed this Framework Agreement. 86 out of 106 countries have signed and ratified this Framework Agreement.

• Headquarters - Gurugram, India

Democratic Republic of Congo 

• It is located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa after Algeria.

• Capital : Kinshasa. It is on the bank of River Congo. 

• Congo is the only river in the world to cross the equator twice.  

• Currency : Congo franc