The Indian government’s multiple policy measures and financing solutions reflect the country’s commitment to a greener future. Progress has been made on multiple fronts toward achieving India’s net zero target by 2070.

This includes financing solutions like the Indian government’s 2023 sovereign green bond, subsidies such as the FAME scheme for green transportation, decarbonization measures like the National Green Hydrogen Mission, and Budget 2023’s USD 4.3 billion outlay for priority capital investments in energy transition, net zero goals, and energy security.

Increasing private sector investment is essential to driving the country’s growth. However, a lack of access to credit, high risks, poor financing terms, and a lack of innovative financing mechanisms may be limiting India’s investment potential in green sectors.

The lab is seeking innovative solutions to finance India’s green growth, providing concrete solutions to the unique financing challenges of investment in green sectors in India.

Bloomberg Philanthropies supports the Lab’s India program.

The Lab’s East and Southern Africa program seeks innovative finance instruments to address the unique challenges of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and East African Community (EAC) regions. These regions are among the most vulnerable to climate change due to their exposure to climate change stresses and low adaptive capacity.

National budgets cannot cover the entire cost of the necessary investments, so international public and private financing and capacity-building support are essential for these countries to meet their climate targets.

As the most biodiverse region globally, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is highly vulnerable to the increasing impacts of climate change, which threatens the livelihoods of millions. The region needs strong financial mechanisms to effectively address growing climate risks and support sustainable and climate-resilient development. However, financial flows remain insufficient due to misaligned financing options, a lack of capacity among local financial institutions, and a cautious investment climate.

In response, the Lab LAC regional program seeks one innovative idea focusing on climate adaptation. The submissions should aim to channel investment into projects that build climate resilience, particularly in smaller and more vulnerable markets. The ideas should address specific physical climate risks and outline strategies to mobilize finance for adaptation while avoiding maladaptation. We are particularly interested in solutions that can improve livelihoods, strengthen financial ecosystems, and ensure long-term resilience in LAC countries.

The U.S. Department of State supports the Lab’s LAC program adaptation window.

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, home to abundant critical mineral reserves, has a unique role in the global transition towards a net zero economy. However, the region faces significant barriers, particularly in aligning available financial resources with the scale required for impactful climate action. There is also a lack of capacity within local financial institutions to harness climate finance, compounded by a generally risk-averse investment landscape.

The Lab’s regional program for LAC seeks to address these challenges through innovative climate finance solutions. We are calling for ideas that focus on climate mitigation, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and accelerating the region’s transition to net zero economies. Proposed ideas should demonstrate how they can mobilize private capital to drive significant emission reductions while being financially sustainable and scalable. Solutions should target key barriers in financing climate mitigation projects, with a clear path toward contributing to long-term net zero goals.

The U.K. Department for Energy Security & Net Zero supports the Lab’s LAC program mitigation window.

Located in the Tropical Cyclone belt, the Philippines is extremely vulnerable to climate-related hazards, including around 20 tropical cyclones yearly. The country is also one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, with approximately 20,000 species not found elsewhere. The Philippines faces additional challenges, such as a 16.7% poverty rate, aging infrastructure, and intermittent insecurities in the food, agriculture, and health sectors.

Despite these challenges, the Philippines remains committed to achieving zero poverty by 2040 and sustainable and inclusive economic growth. However, loss and damage from extreme weather events are increasing at an unacceptable rate, reaching 4% of GDP in 2013 due to Super Typhoon Haiyan.

Nevertheless, the Philippines has set ambitious climate targets, committing to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030. However, achieving them requires significant investment to adapt to the impacts of climate change and transition to a clean energy economy.

In line with Philippine climate goals, nature-based solutions (NBS) offer significant opportunities to increase resilience to climate impacts and address biodiversity loss while supporting sustainable and inclusive economic growth. NBS encompasses green-grey and natural infrastructure with specific NBS project opportunities in the country. These include but are not limited to, topics such as flood risk management, domestic wastewater treatment, coastal hazards adaptation, and protection and restoration of forests, mangroves, and wetlands.

The Lab seeks one solution that mobilizes private climate finance investment in the Philippines with the potential to scale across the Asia-Pacific region. The successful idea will focus on blended finance and financial innovation in NBS, though the Lab will still accept non-NBS solutions for consideration in our other thematic streams. The minimum threshold to qualify for the Phillipines stream is to have the Phillipines as one of the primary target markets.

United Nations Development Programme, with funding from Global Affairs Canada, supports the Lab’s Philippines program,

Global food systems account for nearly one-third of total human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 60% of global biodiversity loss. Yet only 4.3% of global climate finance is directed to agrifood systems. To fulfill their potential and deliver climate mitigation and adaptation gains to people worldwide, global agrifood systems urgently need at least a sevenfold increase in climate finance from 2019/20 levels.

The ClimateShot Investor Coalition (CLIC) has been formed to address this challenge. CLIC is an action-oriented group for leaders in the impact investment community working in agriculture and food systems. This member-driven coalition aims to collectively scale up and accelerate finance for agriculture and food systems globally, with the goal of shifting them to a low-carbon and climate-resilient pathway by 2030.

With support from the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, CLIC has partnered with the Lab to develop an innovative solution to accelerate and scale up climate and nature finance for agriculture and food systems. The selected solution will demonstrate how to bridge demand and supply, making it easier for businesses and organizations in the sector to access the financing they need.

Investing in climate adaptation is critical to building global resilience to worsening climate impacts, but it is far from what is needed. In 2019-2020, of the total USD 653 billion annually tracked to climate finance, just USD 49 billion – less than 10% – was committed to climate adaptation. Creating opportunities in developing countries to attract public and private investment in adaptation is urgent.

The Lab is seeking proposals for innovative financial instruments and solutions that channel investment into building climate resilience and responding to growing climate risk, including at a systemic level. There is a critical need to develop and scale a broad array of financial solutions – including debt and equity facilities, results-based instruments, project finance, and insurance mechanisms – that enable capital to flow to adaptation.

Submissions should focus on climate-stressed regions in developing countries and identify how the proposed financing approach would address specific physical climate risks and overcome barriers to mobilizing finance for climate adaptation. Submissions should also include a plan to phase down public financial support while offering attractive risk-adjusted returns to investors to scale private investment. Lastly, ideas should demonstrate the potential to avoid maladaptation, support improved livelihoods, and strengthen the broader financial ecosystem in the implementation countries.

The U.S. Department of State supports the Lab’s adaptation window.

The Lab is looking for one outstanding concept for a financial instrument that targets investment opportunities in decarbonization that does not fit into the set sectoral and regional streams.

The Lab will consider mitigation-relevant ideas focused on any region with a focus on the following sectors: renewable energy solutions (especially energy access), low-carbon transit, buildings, industrial sectors, and/or the just energy transition, and the phase-out of coal and fossil fuels.

Submissions should explain clearly why the target sector and geography identified are key for climate finance mobilization and how they would benefit from the Lab’s support.