Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted and played the drums along with members of the Indian community gathered to bid him goodbye before his departure for India in Glasgow, Scotland.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 'Infrastructure for Resilient Island States' (IRIS) on the sidelines of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow on Tuesday. At the event, PM Modi said the last few decades proved that no one was untouched by the wrath of climate change.
PM Modi also interacted with leaders of Switzerland, Finland, Israel, Nepal, Malawi, Ukraine, Japan and Argentina. On Monday, PM Modi pledged that India would achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. PM Modi asserted that it was the only country that was delivering in "letter and spirit" the commitments on tackling climate change under the Paris Agreement.
India's ambitious programme the Green Grids Initiative (GGI) as part of the One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG) combining a massive increase in solar and wind power with international grids on every continent, connecting energy-rich locations such as sunny deserts and windy coastlines, was launched on Tuesday at the COP26 here.
Announcing the launch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India's space agency ISRO has come up with a solar calculator App that will be useful in deciding location of solar projects.
The initiative combines large-scale solar power stations, wind farms and grids with rooftop solar and community grids, including village mini-grids, to ensure a reliable, resilient and affordable supply of clean energy for all. Accelerate the energy transition in all parts of the world to stay within a safe global carbon budget.
The announcement was made in a session on 'Accelerating Clean Technology' by Modi and Summit host UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson. US President Joe Biden spoke immediately after Modi.
A day prior, on Monday, Modi had - along with a net zero goal year - declared that India will enhance its targets to combat climate change by increasing its non-fossil fuel energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030 and meet 50 per cent of its energy requirement from renewable energy by 2030. Solar energy plays a pivotal role in this.
The Prime Minister invoked Suryopanishad, an ancient Indian text, chanted a shloka from it and said, "The energy required by the humans across the whole world in the whole year, the sun disseminates that much in just one hour. For a balanced path, we will need to look at the Sun."
The OSOWOG will bring down storage needs and also increase the solar projects that are hampered due to weather and day-time limitations, he said.
