The World Bank has approved $1.5 billion to accelerate India’s development of low-carbon energy. The financing will help the country promote low-carbon energy by scaling up renewable energy, developing green hydrogen, and stimulating climate finance for low-carbon energy investments, the bank said in a statement.

The World Bank introduced the 'first low-carbon energy programmatic development policy operation' to aid India in developing green hydrogen. This operation, one among two envisaged, will facilitate private financing and address funding gaps, reducing off-taker risks, boosting grid integration of renewables, and stimulating demand for renewable energy.

Auguste Tano Kouame, World Bank Country Director for India, said, “The program will support the successful implementation of the National Green Hydrogen Mission that aims to stimulate $100 billion in private sector investment by 2030. The World Bank remains committed to supporting India’s low-carbon transition by complementing public financing and enabling private sector investments.”

The program will support the country attain its committed 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. The government plans to issue bids for 50 GW of renewable energy each year from FY23-24 to FY27-28, which will avoid carbon emissions of 40 million tons per annum by 2026.

In addition, the program will also support policies for a national carbon credit trading scheme to launch a national carbon market. The program will support policy actions for the issuance of $6 billion in sovereign green bonds by 2026, which the country issued first this year.

“India can decouple emissions from growth through improved energy efficiency and switching to clean energy. Through sustained policy reforms India can mobilize private sector investments, create jobs and achieve net-zero targets," said Xiaodong Wang, Dhruv Sharma, and Surbhi Goyal, Team Leaders for the project. In alignment with the Indian Government's energy security strategy, the operation is aligned with the Bank’s Hydrogen for Development (H4D) Partnership launched at CoP27.