SEADS 2023 Featured Talk: Amitabh Kant
The challenge is to de-risk projects and ensure there is long-term finance from private resources.
India's G20 presidency would focus on pushing for innovative financing schemes as the transition to net zero hinges on the availability and alignment of low-cost international finance to advance critical new technologies, said India G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant at the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) fourth Southeast Asia Development Symposium (SEADS).
“There is no shortage of finance,” he assured, but noted, “The challenge before all of us is to de-risk projects and ensure that we are able to get long-term finance from private resources.”
He said innovative financing schemes, including blended finance credit enhancement measures such as guarantees, debt for climate swaps, climate policy performance bonds, green bonds, impact investment, and carbon pricing frameworks, will be needed to mobilize capital.
He said the transition to net-zero would require $200 trillion in investments in new and low-carbon infrastructure, technologies and solutions across sectors, such as heavy industries, transport, and health through 2050.
He said his country’s G20 presidency would build on some of the successes of Indonesia, its predecessor, which had placed transition toward a low-carbon economy on top of the G20 agenda.
With the theme, "Imagining a Net-Zero ASEAN," SEADS 2023 explored measures governments, communities, and the private sector could take to progress toward carbon neutrality.
