International Climate Finance: India’s Readiness and Response

Over the past decade, India has successfully accessed climate finance from a number of sources –
most notably the Clean Technology Fund, the Global Environmental Facility, bilateral donors like
Germany and Japan, and private sector finance channelled through the Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM). Yet as the GCF prepares to open its doors for funding proposals and as the
private sector becomes increasingly engaged in investing in climate-related activities, how ready is
India to access and deliver these funds?
This study analysed India’s climate finance readiness, based on the application of the Readiness
Framework to the Indian context. It is clear from this analysis that India has taken important steps in
recent years to improve its national response to climate change. For example, there is high-level
political commitment to the National Action Plan on Climate Change from the Prime Minister’s Office
(PMO). However there is still no coherent national financing strategy to raise the necessary finance

(from the national budget, private investors, or international donors), and use this funding to deliver
priority actions under the NAPCC’s eight National Missions and the state action plans on climate
change (SAPCC). As such, climate finance in India has been delivered unevenly across sectors,
themes, and regions – which has affected the overall effectiveness of the climate change response in
the country.