IGI Logo

Insisting on taking an approach which is climate-centric and sustainable - not just from an environment point of view, but also from a financial perspective, NITI Aayog CEO, Amitabh Kant on Tuesday said that green financing will enable low interest cost financing of electric vehicles.

"Our overarching aim should be to balance the needs and aspirations of our citizens, improve liveability and productivity by improving connectivity, bring down the cost of logistics, and accelerate clean mobility while taking an approach which is climate-centric and sustainable," he said in his keynote address at a virtual consultation workshop organised by the NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute (WRI), India, with the support of GIZ India on 'Financing for Decarbonisation of Transport' as part of the NDC-Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA) project.

"We need more such financial instruments to provide a further impetus to clean mobility in India. This is why we need to bring states, domestic and international financial institutions, manufacturers and operators on the same page.

"We must come up with financing mechanisms that are widely applicable, acceptable and, most importantly, sustainable. We must foster shared mobility by leveraging private sector investments and unlocking financing for e-buses, which form the core of public transportation in our cities."

German Minister and Head of the Department for Economic and Global Affairs, Dr Stephen Koch said: "India requires a robust roadmap for the electrification of transport. Mobilisation of capital is possible through multi-stakeholder collaborations. The NDC-TIA initiative brings together a wide spectrum of participants to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and information exchange on various themes."

WRI India CEO O.P. Agrawal said: "Transport, the third-most greenhouse-gas-emitting sector in India, accounts for 14 per cent of our energy-related CO2 emissions. It is also the most rapidly growing sector in the country. Therefore, moving towards a low carbon future would necessarily include accelerated decarbonising of the transport sector."

Executive Director (Integrated Transport), WRI India, Amit Bhatt added: "The lack of availability of financing is one of the biggest impediments towards the decarbonisation of the transport sector. Strategic investments and innovative financial solutions can kick start an accelerated transition to 100 per cent zero-emission motor vehicles."