In a bid to reaffirm its commitment to combat Climate change, India has gifted solar panels to the United Nations as a goodwill gesture. The gifted solar panels are installed on the roof of the Conference Building at the United Nations headquarters. The panels are powered up to reach a maximum of 50 KW of generation power. A green roof also has been installed on the building as part of the gift from India.
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The Conference Building at the UN headquarters faces the East River, and it is located between the iconic Secretariate Building and the General Assembly Building of the UN.
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India has contributed $1 million for installing the solar panels on the UN building in New York City. In September last year, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin had tweeted saying that India was the first responder to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for climate action.
https://twitter.com/AkbaruddinIndia/status/1042423109800943616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
He had said that India was funding the solar project at the United Nations headquarters to reduce carbon footprint & promote sustainable energy. While handing over the contribution, Akbaruddin had said, “It is my hope that installing solar panels at UN Headquarters would set in motion enhanced solar energy cooperation at the international stage.”
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India has been a frontrunner in propounding the Paris agreement on Climate change and has set itself ambitious targets to play its part in mitigating global warming. The International Solar Alliance was formed on the initiative of the Modi government in 2016. The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an alliance of more than 122 countries, most of them being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, and receive plenty of sunlight.
With the US showing little interest in honouring the Paris agreement, the world is looking up to India to carry the baton of climate change and spearhead the campaign to protect the environment. India has been a staunch proponent of harnessing the renewable sources of energy such as solar energy, which hitherto hasn’t been utilised to the fullest. The recent endowment of solar panels to the United Nations is a move in this direction.