NABARD signs USD 100 million agreement with Green Climate Fund to boost India’s solar vision

Poland: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) signed an agreement with Green Climate Fund (GCF) to infuse USD 100 million into an ambitious project designed to unlock private sector initiatives for creation of rooftop solar power capacity across India.

The USD 250 million project, to be executed by Tata Cleantech Capital Ltd, will receive the GCF support through NABARD, which is the National Implementing Entity (NIE) for the UNFCC–promoted Fund that supports the efforts of developing countries to respond to the challenge of climate change.

The agreement with GCF was signed by Shri Shankar A Pande, Chief General Manager, NABARD in the presence of  A K Mehta, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) at an event held on the sidelines of ongoing COP24 in Katowice, Poland.

Notably, India, which hosts International Solar Alliance, has an ambitious vision of creating 100 gw solar power capacity. NABARD has been financing solar power projects and installations in various other programs as well.

Earlier, the apex development bank held deliberations on financing climate resilient agriculture with global experts at the international climate change conference in a bid to showcase India’s commitment to fight climate change.

NABARD was lauded for its efforts in mainstreaming climate action in the development planning in agriculture and allied sectors, inter alia. There was a consensus on the need for replication of NABARD’s initiatives like watershed development, tribal development through wadi (small orchard-based farming) to empower rural communities in the developing world against the climate crisis.

Apart from GCF, NABARD is the NIE for Adaptation Fund of UNFCC and National Adaption Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) of GoI. These funding mechanisms are being used to aid the interventions of several state governments in the areas of water, irrigation, fisheries, dairy farming, renewables in agriculture, coastal ecosystem, etc.