New Delhi, Nov 2 France’s Minister Delegate Mathieu Lefèvre will undertake an official visit to India from November 2-3 during which he will co-chair the 9th session of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Assembly and lead his country’s bid for a new two-year term.
The Minister Delegate for Ecological Transition will attend the inauguration of the ISA Assembly on November 2 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi, the French embassy here said.
The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an action-oriented, member-driven, collaborative platform for increased deployment of solar energy technologies as a means of bringing energy access, ensuring energy security, and driving energy transition in its member countries.
“France Minister Delegate for Ecological Transition Mathieu Lefèvre will undertake an official visit to New Delhi, from November 2 to November 3, to co-chair the Ninth Session of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Assembly and to promote France’s candidacy to be re-elected as co-president of ISA,” the embassy said in a statement.
The 9th session of the ISA Assembly will be held alongside the Bharat Renewable Energy Summit and Expo 2026 and the 4th International Conference on Green Hydrogen 2026.
Co-chairing the Assembly with Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi, Lefèvre will address the plenary session on November 3.
On the sidelines of the ISA Assembly, Lefèvre will meet Joshi and Ashish Khanna, Director General of ISA, the statement said.
The embassy said the minister will “shed light on the importance of solar energy to limit global average temperatures to under 1.5 deg C above pre-industrial levels, a target all countries committed to in the Paris Agreement adopted at COP21 in 2015, when ISA was founded”.
France has already supported ISA through successive secondments of French experts and several financial contributions — “1.3 million euros to the STAR-C Programme dedicated to capacity-building in 17 countries, 150 thousand euros to the Africa Solar Facility, and 150 thousand euros in voluntary contributions to the ISA Secretariat”, it said.
“France is seeking a new two-year term as co-chair of the Assembly, with four key priorities: firstly, strengthening human and technical capacity in developing countries; secondly, facilitating access to financing;
“Thirdly, further internationalising the ASI Secretariat; and lastly, supporting the diversification of critical mineral value chains to reduce dependencies,” Lefèvre was quoted as saying in the statement.
Ahead of COP31 in Antalya, the minister will meet Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav during the visit.
Their discussions will focus on France and India’s priorities for COP31 as well as bilateral cooperation in climate, environment and biodiversity, as well as successful projects conducted by the French Development Agency (AFD – Agence française de développement) in India, it said.
The International Solar Alliance was conceived as a joint effort by India and France to mobilise efforts against climate change through deployment of solar energy solutions.
It was conceptualised on the sidelines of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Paris in 2015.
At present, there are a total of 130 member and signatory countries to the ISA.
(PTI News)
