Landscape of Green Finance in India

In September 2019, India announced its target to reach 450 GW of renewable energy generation capacity by 2030, making it one of the most ambitious targets in the world. India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) estimates that the country will require ~INR 187 thousand crores (USD 2.5 trillion) from 2015 to 2030, or roughly INR 12 thousand crores (USD 170 billion) per year for climate action. While India’s energy sector is one of the fastest growing in the world and has been attracting substantial investments, meeting the country’s climate goals will require proportionate, transformative investment increases at sectoral level.

Strong financial support and timely policy interventions from the Government of India have played a crucial role in accelerating the growth of the country’s renewable energy sector. But given current rates of penetration and the overall health of the sector combined with slowdown created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the government will have to find new and alternative ways to finance the transition and incentivize private sector participation to scale up investments for a sustainable and transformational impact. International finance is also likely to come with “green strings” attached. Therefore, identifying and analyzing key sources of finance, the instruments used for mobilizing and disbursing funds, and their ultimate beneficiaries become critical for diagnosis, planning and monitoring green investments in the country.

The report is a one-of-a-kind study undertaken by Climate Policy Initiative that presents the most comprehensive information on green investment flows in the country in FY 2017-FY 2018. The study tracks both public and private sources of capital and builds a framework to track the flow of finance from source to end beneficiaries. This report helps understand the nature and volume of green financial flows in the country and identifies the methodological challenges and data gaps in conducting a robust tracking exercise.