India Innovation Lab for Green Finance

India needs substantial investment in clean energy and green infrastructure to meet its climate goals, but financing barriers have presented challenges. The India Innovation Lab for Green Finance was launched in November 2015 to accelerate the needed investments. The Lab is a private-public partnership with members from Indian ministries, development banks, international aid agencies, and the private sector. In October 2016, the Lab endorsed three financial instruments to be developed and piloted during 2016–2017: a rooftop solar private-sector financing facility, a peer-to-peer lending platform for green investments, and a currency exchange hedging instrument. Notable actions and good practices from this effort are highlighted below and detailed in the case study.

• Selecting financial instruments from a competitive pool of ideas and refining them over time enabled the best ideas to rise to the top and offered a greater likelihood of successful implementation.
• A network of advisors and working groups provided guidance to teams developing promising green finance instruments, helping ensure that ideas could succeed in the real world.
• Financial instruments can support successful outcomes by aiming to lower the cost of financing, increase access to financing, and reduce investment risk.