Having updated its NDCs, India’s recalibrated stance involves raising the issue of climate finance to support deployment of renewable energy projects on a large scale. Indian negotiators at Sharm El-Sheikh are reiterating the demand for its ‘due share’ of financial assistance as the country seeks to go carbon-neutral by 2070. In Glasgow last year, India had argued that it should get $1 trillion in climate funding out to 2030. According to Standard Chartered Plc, the country will need to spend more than $12 trillion by 2060 to put it on track to reach net-zero emissions. The demands are unlikely to be met. Rich nations had in 2009 made a commitment to provide $100 billion a year in climate finance to poorer countries. Even that hasn’t happened yet. Like-minded developing countries, led by India, have now flagged a $6-11 figure to meet their climate action targets till 2030 in the latest round of negotiations at the ministerial-level dialogue on ‘new quantified collective goal’. “The investments in renewable energy though on an upward trend needs significant scaling up in the light of updated NDC targets,” explains an environment ministry official, elaborating the crux of India’s negotiating strategy. “Renewable energy projects, especially in developing countries, face multiple challenges from the institutional, policy and regulatory level to the market and project level barriers, which can hinder the development and uptake of renewable energy. The latter include lack of financing and lack of relevant information on markets and resource availability.” Pipeline of projects India’s aim is to create a ‘pipeline of investment-mature projects’ by actively supporting early stage project development and bridging the funding gap by assisting project developers access appropriate funding opportunities. This gap funding needs to be met by international climate public financing to attract investors in the renewable energy domain, it is arguing. India has been raising the issue of climate funding at other multilateral forums as well. Nirmala Sitharaman had said in Washington recently that institutions like the World Bank were uniquely placed to bring together all stakeholders for developing an investment strategy for climate (and development finance). It should help all client countries in arranging concessional financing and technology transfer in areas like renewable and green energy. “Yet, we must never lose focus on the internationally agreed basic principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR),” she told the World Bank’s Development Committee. “This necessitates avoidance of a one-size fit-all approach”.