GCF grants $100 million to NABARD for rooftop solar in India

Green Climate Fund (GCF), in its 19th Board Meeting held at Songdo, South Korea on March 1, approved the proposal submitted by NABARD for a ‘Line of credit for solar rooftop segment for commercial, industrial and residential housing sectors’ with a GCF loan support of $100 million. The proposal is the first private sector facility proposal sanctioned by GCF to India and will be executed through Tata Cleantech Capital Limited (TCCL).

The Program aims to provide concessional loan assistance to solar roof top PV systems with a program outlay of $250 million creating the power generation capacity of 250 MW. The program would contribute to the development of market for solar roof top financing to meet India’s ambitious target of 40 GW of rooftop solar by 2022. Moreover, it will endeavor to create energy access for most vulnerable areas and MSMEs with poor energy access scenario to create better livelihood opportunities.

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has been accredited as a Direct Access Entity (DAE) of GCF for channelling resources under this Fund. NABARD aims to use the GCF resources for projects and programs aimed at climate resilient and low emission development. NABARD, through its various programs, has been supporting climate resilient development in agriculture and rural livelihood sectors.

The Singapore-headquartered GCF has been designated as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and aims to support developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

This was the first GCF board meeting of 2018, and at the meeting 23 projects were approved, valued together at $1,093.5 million of GCF funding. With these new approvals, the GCF portfolio has brought to a total of 76 projects and programs, amounting to $3,730.2 million to assist developing countries in their low emission and climate resilient development.