Climate Finance team of Shakti organised its Annual Work Planning Workshop on February 1, 2024, on ‘Transitional Finance: Enabling low-carbon transition in India.’ The primary objective of the workshop was to assess the transition finance landscape in the country, identify areas that require near and long-term philanthropic support, and identify key solutions that can deliver a high-impact output. The workshop brought together professionals from prominent think tanks, academic institutions, and diverse subject matter experts. Their collective objective was to collaboratively generate ideas and discuss ways to align current initiatives with India’s path towards low-carbon growth.
Discussion during the workshop primarily focused on necessary policy levers that can help improve demand-side constraints, interoperability with global standards to help improve transparency and accountability, how to alleviate financing barriers, and measures to mitigate capacity-building gaps. The participants present emphasised that the roles of different government institutions need to be defined to avoid aspect of coordination failure in the overall policy making process. Aspects such as carbon tax, improving city level financing, guaranteed risk schemes, in house training modules, and tools to financialise savings were robustly discussed during the workshop.