The Wheeler Institute is delighted to welcome The Climate and Energy Transition Finance Initiative (CETFI), in partnership with London Stock Exchange to the London Business School on Wednesday 25th September, to discuss new approaches to climate finance and leadership from the Global South, starting with India.
The latest event in the Wheeler Institute Climate Initiative will include public release of “New Approaches to Climate Finance: Models for Global South” Report along with a panel discussion from 17:00 featuring experts from private and public sectors, including: U.K. Sinha (Former Chairperson, SEBI, current Chairman, NDTV); Conrad Sangma (Chief Minister, Meghalaya); and Sanmit Ahuja (Board Member, cGanga). The session will be moderated by Narayan Naik (Professor of Finance at London Business School).
Date: Wednesday 25th September 2024
Time: 16:30 registration and refreshment – 17:00-19:30 main event and networking reception
Location: LT12, North Building, London Business School, 27 Sussex Pl, London NW1 4RG
Understanding the Energy Transition: what needs to happen?
According to the most recent estimates the world will have to spend almost USD 200 trillion between now and 2050 to address the climate change challenge. These investments are needed to develop products and services that help to reduce emissions and support generation of renewable energy, clean water, green transport, waste management, carbon credits and so on. Achieving this will require inordinate levels of commitment from all stakeholders and find pathways to pull together in one direction.
The world cannot afford to leave the climate finance conundrum in a state of flux. Relying on current institutional structures will offer support incremental progress when a quantum leap is the urgent need of the hour. A new paradigm is needed – one led by nations of the Global South, not in opposition to the Global North, but by finding new ways of collaboration and introducing dimensions not yet fully exploited.
Collectively, the Global South offers a significant market size for both selling technology and deploying capital. By enhancing the capacity of emerging markets to absorb global high finance, such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investment (FII)/ Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI), substantial growth can be achieved.
Emerging markets can play a pivotal role in reorienting global supply chains, making technology diffusion more affordable and faster. Additionally, developing energy markets in the Global South, particularly through structures that promote a greater share of renewables in the energy mix, will trigger a beneficial chain reaction. These efforts will yield significant dividends by accelerating the decarbonisation of Southern nations. Furthermore, economies of scale will reduce technology costs, creating a positive feedback loop that benefits the entire world.
Dedicated Climate Finance Collective for the Global South
To achieve these goals, it is essential to establish a dedicated climate finance collective that enhances the flow of knowledge among nations of the Global South. This collective operates under the Climate and Energy Transition Initiative (CETFI), a multi-stakeholder platform that not only creates innovative financial structures to drive this paradigm shift but also accelerates it through the implementation of high impact pathbreaking projects across the Global South.
The concept of CETFI was initiated in India in September 2023 through a series of workshops and over 100 dialogues with experts from India and around the world. The initiative culminated in the Climate and Energy Transition Finance Summit (CETFiS), which provided a pivotal platform for the launch of the program that will expand globally.
New Approaches to Climate Finance
The numerous deliberations allowed participants of the workshops, dialogues and the Summit to unravel a number of structural constraints and propose the following solutions:
1. Establishing a definitive market structure early in the lifecycle will build tremendous confidence with the investors. This can be delivered through two critical interventions: (a) establishing a Market-Maker entity that offers long-term offtake agreements and (b) creating national risk registers for various segments.
2. The debate on climate finance has to shift its focus to bringing wholesale finance into the public and private sectors – including establishing a financing continuum, enabling faster churn of capital, building linkages to institutional finance, developing more fund-of-funds, issuing more green bonds and creating a sovereign Fx-hedging facility.
3. Availability of Blended and long-term concessionary finance will be critical to accelerating the rate of energy transition. This is done through cataloguing and implementing an extensive library of financial structures and instruments.
4. Making technologies affordable and available is of paramount importance if we are to achieve the decarbonisation targets. Trans-national collaborations are critical in making technologies emerging-markets ready. India can and will play a crucial role in establishing a global technology acceleration hub.
5. More concerted efforts are required to establish a global carbon finance mechanism and pricing. This is the single most powerful instrument that will bring a level playing field for all market participants and provide a just and equitable pathway to decarbonisation for all nations.
6. The recommendations should be demonstrated through a portfolio of high-impact Lighthouse Projects. Investing in these projects should be in a “no-regret” mode as the projects will not only establish invaluable benchmarks for technology and engineering, but also for policies, regulations and pricing.
Join us at London Business School on Wednesday 25th September to find out more about your part in the global collective, and the future of the energy transition.
About the speakers
Upendra Kumar Sinha is a former chairman of SEBI. His term started in February 2011 and he served as SEBI Chairman for six years. He was the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Unit Trust of India Asset Management Company (UTIAMC), commonly referred to as UTI Mutual Fund. He is a member of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), belonging to the Bihar Cadre. He currently serves as an Independent Director of Adani-owned TV channel NDTV, where he is also the Non-Executive Chairperson.
Conrad Sangma is an Indian politician and current Chief Minister of Meghalaya. He is a member of the National People’s Party. He was also a Member of Parliament from Tura (2016–2018), and has been representing the South Tura constituency since 2018, having represented Selsella constituency from 2008 to 2013. Sangma was also Minister of Finance, Power and Tourism in the Government of Meghalaya from 2008 to 2009. He has served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, and as the National President of the Nationalist Youth Congress.
Sanmit Ahuja (LBS MBA 2004) is an environmental and sustainability expert specialising in building multi-stakeholder ecosystems, technology transfer and green finance. He has developed over 30 projects in water, waste, renewable energy, and agriculture sectors and serves on several government panels and boards including Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga). He is the Founding Director of CETFI, leading climate finance initiatives and collaborating with organisations
like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, The Commonwealth, EU and more.
Narayan Naik is Professor of Finance at London Business School. He is recognised as one of the leading experts on asset management in general, and hedge fund investing in particular. Over the last decade he has authored a significant body of work in the investment management area on benchmarking, performance evaluation, tail-risk hedging and market microstructure. His work has appeared in the top finance journals, leading practitioner journals and financial press. Professor Naik’s teaching includes: Project & Infrastructure Finance, Strategic Investment Management, Equity Investment Management and Wealth Management.
About the Climate and Energy Transition Initiative (CETFI)
The Climate and Energy Transition Finance Initiative (CETFI) was initiated in 2023 as a multi-stakeholder alliance of interested parties that wish to effect a faster rollout of climate solutions and energy transition projects. CETFI is primarily focused on the global south as the needs for access to long term, low cost, concessionary and non-recourse finance are much more pronounced in these markets.
CETFI is managed by the Bharat Technology and Impact Accelerator (bharatia.org), an impact organisation for the global south, with Mr. Sanmit Ahuja, climate finance specialist, leading the efforts as its Founding Director along with more than 20 financial experts.
Find out more via the CETFI website now.