Onus must be on banks to fund green energy projects: Renewable energy secretary Prashant Kumar Singh

Renewable energy secretary Prashant Kumar Singh on Thursday said there was a need to have a green energy financing obligation on banks. Speaking at CII's Global Economic Policy Forum, Singh said banks were currently funding only a small portion of renewable energy projects while non-banking financial companies sanctioned the major portion of their requirement.

Outlining the future requirement, Singh reiterated that ₹30 lakh crore investment was needed in the renewable energy sector going forward.

"There is a need for a renewable energy lens and then working from that perspective," he said. Climate change goals cannot be achieved till India de-carbonises, he added.


India recently became the third-largest renewable energy producing country and the third largest in solar energy capacity, he said.

Auguste Tano Kouame, Country Director for India at the World Bank, who also addressed the session, said the cost of energy transition was not an additional expense but a substitute cost. He said the transition involved economic transformation.

Kouame underscored the need to transform the energy mix adding that there was awareness among market participants for pollution causing sources of energy.