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US wants solar alliance between India &France.

The International Solar Alliance (ISA), proposed with fanfare by India and France, faces a challenge from the US, which wants it to function as an informal arrangement, although Delhi has touted it as the major international organization to be headquartered in the country.The alliance, a joint initiative of PM Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande, was announced at the end of the last climate talks in Paris in November 2015, as a coalition of solar resource rich countries "to address their special energy needs and provide a platform to collaborate on addressing the identified gaps through a common, agreed agenda", as the working paper on the ISA put it.

Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, deputy secretary, US Department of Energy, confirmed the US's position. "If the body established is a treaty body, that could create a problem for us," she said.Modi and Hollande jointly laid the foundation stone for the headquarters of the ISA at the campus of the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) in Gurgaon in January this year.The steering committee of the ISA has held a few meetings in different parts of the world, but beyond that there has been no progress. "We're hoping to hold the founding conference in October when some 30 countries are expected to ratify the treaty," said the official.