- The climate finance landscape in India on a whole is highly fragmented with the central government, state governments, private sector and civil society actors all playing significant roles in low emission and climate resilient development.
- Well-defined policies in the solar energy and energy efficiency markets, triggered by national climate policy, have spurred climate related finance through a variety of domestic and international, both public and private, sources.
- The main institutional response of the Government of India on climate finance has been to establish a Climate Change Finance Unit within the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance.
- In accessing international climate funds in the past, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has led selection and oversight of projects, while the Ministry of Finance has been the nodal department for receiving financial assistance from multilateral and bilateral funds.
- There is no formal coordination mechanism around climate finance in India, but a wealth of stakeholders at the national and subnational level, in both the public and private sectors could be engaged to develop a clearer sense of opportunities and priorities using both domestic and international finance.
- There is a need for a coherent strategy on climate finance in India, which interfaces ongoing efforts on mitigation and adaptation with the emerging domestic and international financial arrangements.
Vyoma Jha, CPR