Workshop on Climate Finance Access and Mobilization Strategy for Maharashtra (2024-30)

In response to the urgent need for climate action, the Environment and Climate Change Department, Government of Maharashtra has recently updated the State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC). A key part of the SAPCC is focused on climate finance in the State, identifying and tagging climate-related budgetary expenditure. Acknowledging the need for alternative sources of finance to support the State’s climate ambitions, the State Climate Action Cell (SCAC), Government of Maharashtra, with knowledge support of WRI India, is preparing a Resource Mobilization Strategy (RMS) for Climate Finance in Maharashtra.

With this background, the SCAC and WRI India are jointly organizing a workshop on, “Climate Finance Access and Mobilization Strategy for Maharashtra (2024-2030)” to inform the development of its resource mobilization strategy. This workshop will introduce preliminary findings from the RMS for Maharashtra and facilitate a dialogue on the evolution of climate finance in the state. The deliberations will explore challenges impeding climate finance inflow, strategies for developing a robust project pipeline, and opportunities to maximize the state's climate finance potential through the key panel discussions.

KEY DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• How has domestic climate finance evolved and what are the different instruments available to sub-national governments and entities?
• What are the major challenges facing sub-national governments and entities in accessing climate finance from different sources and instruments?
• How can state governments overcome the hurdles they face in accessing multilateral and bilateral climate finance?
• How can Maharashtra leverage its industrial and economic strengths to catalyze private sector climate investments and ensure scalability of designed solutions?
• How can Maharashtra create a pipeline of bankable projects to access climate finance?

SPEAKERS

• V Chandrasekar, Senior Advisor, Indian Banks’ Association
• Sanjeev Rohilla, Chief General Manager, NABARD
• Praveen Pardeshi, CEO, Maharashtra Institution for Transformation (MITRA)
• Abhijit Ghorpade, Director, State Climate Action Cell, Government of Maharashtra
• Simmi Sareen, Co-founder, Climake
• Anjalee Tarapore, Executive Vice President, ESG, HDFC
• Royston Braganza, CEO, Grameen Capital
• Tushar Thakkar, Partner, The Blended Finance Company
• Ravindra Chaubey, Regional Head, ICICI Bank
• Camille Severac, Deputy Head, AfD
• Jaicy Paul, Chief General Manager (ESG & Climate Finance Unit, State Bank of India (SBI)
• Sanjoy Ghosh, General Manager, NABARD
• Neha Kumar, Head, South Asia Programme, Climate Bonds Initiative
• Madhav Pai, CEO, WRI India
• Ulka Kelkar, Executive Program Director, WRI India