COP26: Tata Sons, HDFC Bank among founding members of Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI) India

Today UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Solutions Michael R. Bloomberg announced the nine founding members of CFLI India. CFLI India’s members are leaders in climate and infrastructure finance and bring the same global scale and influence of the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI) to concentrate action on accelerating private climate finance flows in India, a critical market for climate action and opportunity. The announcement comes ahead of the COP26 summit, where prioritizing sustainable investment in emerging economies is at the heart of the discussion.

Launched in September 2021, CFLI India 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. Together, the CFLI members can help fill the BloombergNEF-estimated $649 billion financing gap across the power sector for India to reach its 450GW renewable energy target.

Led by Bloomberg, CFLI India is co-chaired by Shemara Wikramanayake, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Macquarie Group, and N Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons. It is also supported by the UK and Indian Governments, the City of London Corporation and the Global Infrastructure Facility.

CFLI India members:

1) GIC Private Limited

2) Goldman Sachs

3) HDFC Bank

4) HSBC

5) Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

6) Larsen & Toubro Ltd

7) Macquarie Group

8) State Bank of India

9) Tata Sons

“By helping to drive more private investment to clean energy sustainable infrastructure projects in India, this effort can set an example for what’s possible in countries around the world. We couldn’t ask for a stronger group of Indian and international partners to lead the initiative and turn opportunities into results,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, Chair, Climate Finance Leadership Initiative.

“Mobilizing capital to support the transition of emerging economies is critical to achieving our global net zero goals, and will be a key area of focus at COP26. Country-level partnerships like CFLI India can play a vital role in closing the current funding gap and enabling ambitious national climate plans. We look forward to working with these leading Indian businesses and international financial institutions to develop catalytic financing opportunities that will create lasting access to private climate capital,” said Shemara Wikramanayake, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Macquarie Group

“The Tata Group is committed towards climate sustainability and is proud to co-chair CFLI India initiative. This initiative will help accelerate sustainability linked initiatives such as clean energy growth in support of meeting India’s ambitious renewable energy goals. We look forward to driving this initiative forward – alongside Macquarie and other leading global financial institutions and corporates – and advancing the public-private collaboration that is vital to strengthening enabling policy environments for unlocking private capital and moving towards net-zero goals,” said N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons

To support India’s climate and sustainable infrastructure development goals, CFLI India will seek to accelerate financing for opportunities in enabling infrastructure for renewables; water and waste infrastructure for a circular economy; scaling electric mobility and charging infrastructure; and innovations for decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors, including hydrogen.

“GIC is pleased to participate in CFLI India, a multi-party initiative to accelerate the clean energy transition in a key emerging market. The goals of CFLI to mobilise climate finance aligns with our focus on sustainability as a key driver of long-term returns. We look forward to working with members from the private and public sectors to identify and develop good investment opportunities that can support India’s green infrastructure goals,” said Dr. Jeffrey Jaensubhakij, Group Chief Investment Officer, GIC Private Limited.

“Our firm is committed to investing and supporting new technologies and low-carbon solutions to build a more sustainable future. In India, we started this journey by investing over a decade ago to create ReNew Power, India’s largest renewable energy company, where today we continue to be the largest shareholder. Our prior engagement with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Asian Development Bank to advance clean energy solutions in South Asia show partnership is critical in increasing the pace, scale and ambition of our transition to clean energy. As a founding member of CFLI India, Goldman Sachs will seek to accelerate private climate finance flows into India,” said Sonjoy Chatterjee, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Goldman Sachs India.

“Climate change is the key issue and opportunity of our times. Economic prosperity and mitigating the effects of climate change are joined at the hip. It’s no more an option. This is the only path global community needs to take for the wellbeing of people and sustainability of the economic prosperity. We are delighted to be a part of this initiative,” said S. Jagdishan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, HDFC Bank Ltd.

“We welcome the launch of CFLI in India, which is very opportune aligning with the trinity of government, corporate and citizen actions converging towards a Net Zero future. We are hopeful that the practitioner lens that the CFLI platform brings forth, will help pivot the pace of Green in India.” said Hitendra Dave, Chief Executive Officer, HSBC India.

“Managing climate risks and ensuring sustainability in business will also require financial innovations and active participation in the process by financial institutions. We are happy to join CFLI in India and to have this opportunity to constructively contribute to this process,” said Dipak Gupta, Joint Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

“We are pleased to join CFLI India as a founding member. We look forward to working together with the other members to support India’s clean energy investment goals through capital mobilization and policy frameworks,” said S. N. Subrahmanyan, CEO & MD, Larsen & Toubro.

“We are proud to be associated with the CFLI India initiative and are confident that with our concerted efforts, we shall be able to contribute significantly towards creating a sustainable and better infrastructure for the country,” said Dinesh Khara, Chairman, State Bank of India.

CFLI India is the first in a series of country pilots formed by the CFLI. The country pilots are multi-year efforts that align public and private resources around a narrow set of high-priority, sector-specific opportunities in emerging market countries, with the aim of creating lasting access to private capital for climate action. Each country pilot convenes domestic and international financial institutions in collaboration with the national government and the multilateral community to strengthen the local policy enabling environment and mobilize capital into bankable sustainable infrastructure opportunities.

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