Riya Saxena

Riya Saxena is a climate finance specialist with nine years of experience working at the intersection of finance, policy, and sustainable development in India. She currently leads climate finance initiatives at the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)’s India programme, focusing on mobilising capital for India’s net-zero transition, including electric mobility and broader financial-sector engagement with banks and NBFCs. Previously, she worked with the climate finance team at UNDP India and served on the secretariat to the Ministry of Finance Taskforce on Sustainable Finance, contributing to the development of sustainability disclosures and sustainable finance taxonomy. Prior to this, she was among the founding team at Asha Impact, an impact investment platform supporting for-profit early-stage social enterprises. Her international experience includes consultancy roles with the Charities Aid Foundation and the Acumen Fund in London.  Riya holds a BA in Economics from Hans Raj College and an MSc in Development Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Research interests

• Blended finance and risk-sharing mechanisms to scale climate investment
• Climate finance and capital mobilisation for emerging economies
• Role of banks and financial institutions in enabling net-zero transition 
• Transition finance and corporate transition planning in hard-to-abate sectors
• Sustainable finance policy and regulatory frameworks