The Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific (IF-CAP), the latest climate finance initiative from ADB, was previously announced by the bank's president.
Finance minister Nitmala Sitharaman on Tuesday met ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa and urged the multilateral funding agency to to support India with more concessional climate finance, as the country’s economic progress can have huge positive impact regionally and globally.
During the bilateral meeting with the president here, Sitharaman said India continues to be the most significant country for ADB’s sovereign and non-sovereign operations.
She also offered the Asian Development Bank (ADB) her assistance for creative financing strategies that would increase the bank's capacity for lending. She urged ADB to reflect and consider how the bank might best assist its developing member nations.
“FM Smt. @nsitharaman urged @ADB_HQ to support India with more concessional #ClimateFinance, as India’s economic and developmental progress can have huge positive impact regionally and globally,” a tweet from the finance ministry said.
During the meeting, Asakawa reaffirmed ADB's commitment to providing its member nations with USD 100 billion in climate finance. He also thanked India for supporting ADB's cutting-edge finance facility for climate in Asia and the Pacific.
The Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific (IF-CAP) was introduced earlier in the day by ADB President, who also introduced the bank's other new climate finance initiative.
“The climate events we have experienced over the past 12 months will only increase in intensity and frequency, so we must take bold action now. IF-CAP is an exciting, innovative programme that will have a real impact. And it is another example of how ADB serves as the climate bank for Asia and the Pacific,” he said.
Denmark, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States are the founding members of IF-CAP.
Those partners and ADB are in talks about offering a variety of grants for project planning and guaranteeing a portion of ADB's sovereign loan portfolios.
As a result of the guarantees' lower risk exposure, ADB will have more money available to speed up the approval of new loans for climate projects.
With a model of ‘USD 1 in, USD 5 out’, the initial ambition of USD 3 billion in guarantees could create up to USD 15 billion in new loans for much-needed climate projects across Asia and the Pacific, he said.