Unlocking finance and managing climate risks for India’s transition to a resilient, Paris-aligned economy

Principal investigator

• Climate Bonds Initiative

Co-investigators

• Yannis Dafermos (SOAS University of London) 
• Ulrich Volz (SOAS University of London)

Funder

• Children’s Investment Fund Foundation

Duration

• 2023-2024

This project, led by the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), aims at engaging with and supporting the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on climate-related issues. 

The overarching role is to evaluate and improve the ability of the Indian financial system to address climate-related risks and support the transition to a clean, climate-resilient economy. Apart from CBI and SOAS, the consortium of the project also includes the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and auctusESG. 

SOAS’s role in the project is to conduct research about how RBI and Indian banks can assess and manage climate transition risks. The research covers stress testing, scenario analysis and the modelling of transition risks both from a macroeconomic and a microeconomic perspective. Based on this research, the SOAS team makes specific recommendations about the adoption of transition risk approaches that fit the Indian context. The SOAS team also conducts research on the system-wide implications of the climate crisis for the Indian economy and the role of Indian banks from a double materiality perspective. 

This research is the basis for recommendations about the principles that RBI and Indian banks need to adopt for the design and the implementation of climate-related initiatives and policies.

Image by Julian Yu via Unsplash