Environmentally Sustainable Finance

We support scalable private and community interventions as well as policies to make India's economy more environmentally sustainable from the bottom up.

India’s soaring rate of economic growth has come at a great cost to the environment, bringing increased use of energy and natural resources and rising emissions of pollution and waste.  To identify ways in which resources for growth can be more effectively channeled to support environmental sustainability, the Centre for Development Finance (CDF) at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) Chennai created the Environmentally Sustainable Finance (ESF) group in early 2007. 

ESF focuses on research and action to inform environmental policymaking and implementation, integrate environmental sustainability into development initiatives, and support scalable commercial and non-profit interventions to make India’s economy more environmentally sustainable from the bottom up.  ESF’s approach combines academic research and strategic consulting, with careful attention to political economy and market incentives as the drivers of any sustainable solutions. ESF pays particular attention to the environmental issues and technologies that affect everyday living standards – for example, access to clean air, clean water and renewable energy sources – as these are the areas in which mitigating environmental impact and alleviating poverty go hand in hand. 

Keywords: renewable energy, pollution, climate change, Environmental sustainability, financial sustainability, environmental policy, environment

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