Macron hikes solar funding to cut fossil fuel

New Delhi: French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced an additional investment of 700 million euros for global solar energy generation by 2022 to reduce the use of fossil fuel and help combat climate change.

Speaking at the launch of the first International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit, Macron called for "joint duties" towards a "planet that we are sharing" and took a dig at his US counterpart Donald Trump who pulled out of the 2015 Paris climate deal.

Macron said the summit to revolutionise the use of the clean energy by generating over 1,000 GW of solar power by 2030 was an outcome of the Paris accord even as "some left the floor" but others decided to act and keep acting.

The French President co-chaired the summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Rashtrapati Bhavan that was also attended by the heads of 23 nations and 10 ministerial representatives.

Among those present were UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid.

"The French Development Agency will allocate additional 700 million euros to its commitment to solar energy by 2022," Macron said. This will take France's total commitment to the solar alliance to 1,000 million euros.

Conceptualised by India, the solar alliance currently has 121-member countries. Out of those, 60 have signed the solar treaty and some 30 have ratified it.