A Summary of Expert Perspectives on Viable Financing Pathways for Electrifying India’s Public Transport
By Aparna Vijaykumar, Aswathy KP and Avinash Dubedi
The publication reflects the recommendations shared by stakeholders during INSIGHT 2022 – a two-day international conference organized by Convergence Energy Service Limited (CESL) and WRI India on September 15–16, 2022.
It also highlights the views of experts from a workshop on carbon markets held on September 14, 2022. The workshop was organized in collaboration with the World Bank under the Forum for Decarbonizing Transport under the NDC Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA).
Key Findings:
Some of the key highlights and takeaways of the conference and workshop were the following:
Carbon markets are an effective driver for reducing emissions, offering the lowest-cost emission reductions.
Building international commitment on emissions reduction, adoption of climate targets by corporates, and monitoring and reporting mandates on climate disclosures are the key enablers of the carbon market in India.
The Indian carbon market is going to cross the US$500 million mark by 2025 and is poised to become a $10 billion industry by 2030.
An independent regulatory body is needed to oversee the procurement of electric buses, based on similar models in the power sector. A case in point is Solar Energy Corporation of India’s model for payment security.
Decoupling batteries from EVs, higher warranties, and a robust business model for second life applications of batteries are key solutions to tackle the challenges associated with the resale value of EVs.
The GC aggregation model was a win-win situation for all stakeholders of the value chain: for the commuters in terms of moving toward more comfortable public transport, for state transport undertakings in terms of achieving total cost of ownership parity, and for OEMs by building supply chains and engineering intellectual property.
Accelerated bus electrification requires multilateral and cross-sectoral collaborations among bus operators, OEMs, IT companies, grid and energy utilities, and various state and central ministries.
Convergence Energy Service Limited (CESL) and World Resources Institute India (WRI India) organized a two-day international conference titled “International Conference on Sustainable and Innovative Finance for Green and Healthy Transportation—(INSIGHT 2022)” on September 15–16, 2022, with the support of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Ministry of Heavy Industry, Ministry of Power (MoP), and National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog).
This was preceded by a one-day workshop on “Carbon Markets: Regulations, Infrastructure and International Experiences” on September 14, 2022, which was organized in collaboration with the World Bank under the Forum for Decarbonizing Transport under the NDC Transport Initiative for Asia.
The two-day conference was inaugurated by Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister of Road Transport & Highways, with special remarks by Kailash Gahlot, Hon’ble Minister of Transport & Environment, Government of Delhi, and Amitabh Kant, Hon’ble Sherpa of India’s G20 Presidency. The conference provided a platform to discuss key learnings from the Grand Challenge (GC), which was the world’s biggest tender for e-buses; the scope and challenges involved in scaling up the GC to a national program; the role of financiers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the nationwide e-bus procurement and regulatory architecture mandates; global experience with e-bus business models; the necessity for cross-sectoral collaborations; and the role of the public and private sectors in scaling electric vehicles (EVs). The one-day workshop on carbon markets focused on potential carbon market infrastructure, learnings from global experience, key drivers/enablers of the carbon market, the impact of internal carbon markets in India, and innovative approaches to ensure environmental integrity.
Read more on WRI India’s website wri.org.
