The Minority in parliament has commended the Ministry of Energy for its role in ensuring the ratification of the Framework Agreement on the establishment of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), making Ghana part of the first 15 countries to bring the alliance into a legal entity.

According to the former Minister for Power, Dr. kwabena Donkor, the fruition of the project by the current government will enhance democracy in the country.

“I will want to congratulate the ministry of energy for bringing this project to the house, we will want to appreciate the efforts of the current minister in seeing to the fruition of this dream that began in 2015, when project started by one regime are continued by the other regime, it goes to enhance our democracy and goes to enhance our position as a people,” Dr. Donkor said on the floor of Parliament.

Parliament on October 3 ratified the framework agreement to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA).

Background The ISA as a legal entity will come into existence once 15 countries ratify the Framework Agreement, which seeks to establish ISA as a treaty-based organization.

The initiative launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015 currently has 121 Prospective member countries, 39 Signatory countries with 10 countries ratifying.

The ten countries that ratified are India, France, Nauru, Mauritius, Niger, Tuvalu, Bangladesh, Somalia, Seychelles and Fiji.

Among key objectives of ISA is the promotion of solar technologies, new business models and investment in the solar sector to enhance prosperity and to aggregate and formulate projects and programmes to get the cost optimization and benefits through economies of scale.

It also aims to develop innovative financial mechanisms to reduce cost of capital, build a common knowledge e-Portal and facilitate capacity building for promotion and absorption of solar technologies and research and development among member countries.

The Government of India through the Ministry of External Affairs has set aside up toUS$2 Billion for solar projects in Africa out of the Government of India’s US$10 Billion concessional Line of Credit for Africa. The LOC will be extended to all those African countries that have signed and ratified the International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement.

Currently, India has committed to host ISA Secretariat for five years duration from 2016-17 to 2020-21 and will contribute $27 million to the ISA for creating corpus, building infrastructure and recurring expenditure over the period.