ADB and GCF Launch 200 Million Dollar Clean Energy Program for India

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has endorsed a new program of $200 million of concessional finance led by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to spur clean energy investment in India. The program will help to support the India Green Finance Facility (IGFF), an innovative blended finance mechanism that aims to mobilize large-scale public and private investment into new clean energy technologies.

Pradeep Tharakan, Director for Energy Transition of ADB said, “This is a major milestone towards assisting India to transition its energy systems to achieve its 2070 net zero emission target. Though India has progressed significantly in increasing wind and solar energy, it now wants to decarbonize industrial, agricultural, and transport sectors, which are hard-to-abate.”

Key Highlights-

• ADB and GCF launch 200 million dollar India Green Finance Facility to boost clean energy investment.
• IGFF to support sectors like green hydrogen, electric mobility, and compressed biogas through blended finance.
• New risk sharing facility to help smaller clean energy developers access affordable funding.

By means of IGFF, ADB will provide lines of credit through India's premier Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), which will develop and manage the pipeline of clean energy projects. The facility will target round-the-clock renewables, green hydrogen, decentralized renewable energy, compressed biogas, and electric mobility in rural areas.

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A key innovation of the initiative is a USD 65 million risk-sharing facility, which is intended to provide partial credit guarantees and facilitate finance for smaller developers, especially in the compressed biogas space—frequently under the radar of commercial lenders due to risk.

"The GCF is delighted to support IGFF. This partnership is a testament to our ambition to drive innovative, high-impact solutions addressing climate change and supporting inclusive, sustainable development," noted Hemant Mandal, Director for Asia and Pacific at GCF.

Authorized during GCF's 42nd Board Meeting, this is the fund's first project with ADB in India and provides a model for market-based climate action in developing countries.