Goa govt, World Bank collaborate for blended finance facility for climate resilience

Panaji: The Goa government on Tuesday announced the setting up of a blended finance facility in partnership with the World Bank that will enable the coastal state to access and mobilise concessional finance to implement low-carbon and climate-resilient investments.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in the presence of the World Bank officials and other institutions announced the setting up of the facility.

Given the wide range of sectors identified by the blended finance facility framework, the Goa government's environment department signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) Deputy Chairman G S Rawat, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) Chairman and Managing Director S Ramann, and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) Chairperson and Managing Director Parminder Chopra.

The blended finance facility was announced at the 2024 edition of the World Bank's India Climate and Development Partners' Meet, an annual conference of thought leaders and changemakers in the climate sector.

The conference is being held in Panaji from February 19 to 21 and is jointly hosted by the Goa government and the World Bank.

"Resilience is a crucial aspect of our vision for a balanced Goa that bridges economy and ecology and balances our aspirations for the health of our ecosystems and the development and wellbeing of our people," Sawant said.

"This blended finance facility will enable us to embed and operationalise greater resilience in our planning, investments and infrastructure. We look forward to empowering our communities with the new technologies and business models that will be crucial in our response to climate change," he said.

This includes operationalisation of Goa's State Action Plan on Climate Change (2023-2033) which entails building institutional and technical capacity, investing in resilient infrastructure, re-skilling for high-productivity jobs, and orienting the local economy around more resilient livelihoods, the CM said.

Jennifer Sara, Global Director, Climate Change Global Practice, World Bank, said the key sectors that will benefit from blended finance investments include e-mobility and related infrastructure, renewable energy, biodiversity conservation, coastal protection and green tourism.

"Blended finance innovations can help mobilise high-risk projects that generate positive, measurable social and environmental results, including better and more sustainable products and services for consumers," she said.

The conference organisers in a release said this will be a first-of-its-kind, climate-focused, multi-sectoral facility at a sub-national level that will enable Goa to access and mobilise concessional finance to implement low-carbon and climate-resilient investments.

"Blended finance- inclusive of public, private, international, and domestic climate finance- has the potential to help Goa and other coastal states in India build greater resilience to the impacts of a rapidly warming climate," the release said.

The facility will play key roles in assisting projects with existing funding and/or established commercial viability to access financing, and channelise financing to projects/sectors with no existing funding, below market rate returns, or unattractive risk/return profile, it added.

Abhas K Jha, Practice Manager, South Asia Region Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management at the World Bank, said this facility has the potential to be replicated and scaled in India at the sub-national level.

Done right, it helps private gains to reinforce public good and unlock a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity to fund green growth and create new jobs, he said.

Goa has received a Rs 700 crore fund from the IIT alumni council to replace the existing fleet of vehicles, state Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira said on the occasion without elaborating.

He said that the per capita emission, number of vehicles and consumption of electricity in Goa is a cause of concern, which the state government is addressing.

The India Climate and Development Partners' Meet has brought together policymakers, financial institutions, businesses and community representatives, to discuss opportunities for leveraging finance for adaptation, replicating successful state-driven climate solutions, and mainstreaming climate considerations in government investments and budgets.

The areas of deliberation and mutual collaboration at the conference include innovation in climate financing, leveraging technology for climate action, sustainable cooling, community-led resilience and coastal resilience, the release said.