UK Pledges $1.2 Billion Support To India’s Energy Transition

The UK said on Thursday (Sep 2) that it would help India’s green growth with a $1.2-billion package of public and private finance as it joined the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI) India partnership.

The partnership will be led by a group of leading financial institutions responsible for $6.2 trillion of assets and chaired by Michael Bloomberg, UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions.

The initiative “seeks to mobilize investment into India and begin a long-term effort with public, private, and multilateral initiatives to strengthen local enabling environments and facilitate private capital at scale,” the UK, India, and CFLI said in a statement.

BloombergNEF estimates that deployment of renewable energy in India must accelerate, and an additional $649 billion in financing may be needed across the power sector for India to reach its 450 GW renewable energy target—a financing gap the private sector can help to fill.

India is not part of the dozens of nations that have already vowed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 or, in China’s case, by 2060.

One of the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitters, India, could add more coal-fired electricity generation capacity despite the global push for clean power sources.

India and other developing nations should get international financial support, as well as strong government commitment and aid, in order to phase out coal and contribute to emissions reduction, Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said in March this year.

The world as a whole needs to exit coal, he said, but noted that for many coal-dependent nations, including India, the exit would need a lot of international financial assistance, and it would not be fair to ask emerging economies to stop using coal without support.

“Therefore it is extremely important on how we on one hand get out of the coal and at the same time do not have a negative impact on emerging markets,” Birol said at the Energy Horizons Leadership Dialogue organized by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), cited by Indian outlet PTI.