Scaling Blended Climate Finance: Solutions for India
Supporting India’s climate transition requires very large, long-tenor capital, with multiple estimates suggesting a need for $1.5–$2.5 trillion by 2030. Mobilising this scale of finance will require approaches that draw in domestic and international investors at lower cost of capital and with risk profiles that can work for institutional money. Blended finance—scaled and standardised—can help bridge this gap by using catalytic capital to crowd in commercial investment into climate solutions in India.
This session will build upon the discussions hosted at LSE in March, where we examined how deployment of climate finance at scale remains constrained by persistent barriers—high perceived and real risks, currency and refinancing challenges, gaps in project preparation, and a shortage of replicable structures that meet the requirements of institutional investors, despite the growing investor appetite. Discussions pointed to the need to move beyond problem diagnosis and focus on practical, investable mechanisms that can be standardised and scaled. This follow-up convening therefore “zooms in” on three solutions that have emerged as particularly promising, and warrant further examination of design choices, governance, and applicability to India.
This invite-only workshop convenes practitioners, policymakers, and investors to build on earlier discussions and go deeper on three practical levers for crowding in private capital. We will look at catalytic equity (including junior/first-loss equity structures) and guarantees (including credit enhancement and risk-sharing facilities) as complementary solutions to improve risk-adjusted returns and enable larger pools of capital to participate. We involve have deep-dives on Brazil’s Eco Invest programme as well as the IDB ReInvest+ programme, with an emphasis on how these can translate to the Indian context, in particular to attract external private capital and for managing currency FX risks.
This is a closed-door, invite-only workshop. Please contact s.singh49@lse.ac.uk for any further information.