The World Bank’s multilateral lending arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC), will provide $75 million (around Rs 338 crore) to Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) for investments in renewable energy, cleaner production and energy efficiency projects.

This project is part of IFC’s climate change strategy of partnering with financial intermediaries to scale up the impact for climate change projects in India. IDFC, which has its registered office in Chennai, invests in infrastructure projects all over India. The project will help IDFC scale up its capacity to assess renewable energy and energy efficiency projects through sharing of IFC’s experience and knowledge of these sectors worldwide.

Through the proposed facility, IDFC and IFC will be able to leverage each other’s strengths, IDFC’s client reach in the local market and IFC’s expertise in climate change projects, to achieve a wider scale and impact on climate change investments in India. The expansion into climate change areas by a leading financial intermediary like IDFC is expected to help attract other financial institutions to increase their risk appetite and invest more in these sectors. IFC’s engagement across several solar initiatives, both in manufacturing and project development, in India and abroad, has enabled it to develop a deep understanding and knowledge about this sector.

IFC has also been closely working with key policy makers in India in helping them develop a framework for promoting solar energy applications.