NEW DELHI: There can be poverty of projects but there is no shortage of funds in the world, said India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, as he pitched for the need to reach 750GW of clean (non-fossil fuel) energy in India by 2030, much beyond the country’s current target of 500GW.
He said $300 trillion is available globally and $150 trillion is available in sovereign funds and pension funds, noting that international financial institutions such as ADB and World Bank need to use guarantees and blended finance to allow much more private finance into the countries of global south, particularly India.
Kant was speaking here at a brainstorming session on climate action issues, organised by a Delhi-based think tank Climate Trends ahead of the upcoming G20 in Brazil and UN climate change conference (CO) in Azerbaijan, scheduled next month.
For India, he said, the country needs to have very strong tripartite agreement between the Centre, states and RBI to ensure private entities get some return on their investment.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, economist and former deputy chairperson of the erstwhile Planning Commission, and R R Rashmi, TERI’s distinguished fellow and India’s former climate negotiator were also among those who shared their views on different aspects of climate actions and climate finance.