Governments should offer loss guarantees through gap funding for clean energy transition, said Kotak Mahindra Bank CEO Uday Kotak on Saturday. He said the move will require substantial capital pool as well.
“We have no choice but to go beyond capital that expects returns. Capital that is ready to take losses; this needs to come from businesses,” he said at the B20 Summit.
“We also need to ensure that the solution is not worse than the problem and doesn’t make it worse in the long term.” He also said funding for clean technology initiatives must stem from businesses in collaboration with governments. Other panellist highlighted that enormous amount of capital to finance the climate transition is needed.
Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, Co-Chair, GFANZ and Chair and Head of Transition Investing, Brookfield Asset Management, said, “We need to focus on transition finance, particularly for the challenging hard-to-abate sectors and the workers and communities associated with these sectors.” He said that $100-150 billion should flow yearly from developed countries to emerging economies to help them transition. Mark E Tucker, group chairman, HSBC Holdings, UK, said HSBC has pledged to provide $1 trillion by 2030 towards climate transition.