Lessons on green growth for and from Indian states – London Climate Action Week

For a clean transition, national ambition needs to be complemented by subnational action. Globally, sub-national entities, states, cities and municipalities are taking steps to internalise climate action into their growth strategies. However, several key barriers must be addressed: 1) how to translate international ambition and national commitments into action; 2) the innovation capacity of different players; and 3) access to finance. The third factor especially becomes key in emerging economies, where both national and subnational governments are restricted by limited fiscal space.

With this background, on 25 June 2026 CETEx and Energiva Ventures jointly hosted a roundtable on Advancing Green Growth: Lessons for and from Indian States. The session was designed to discuss how sub-national governments are shaping climate-aligned growth pathways that are low-carbon, resource-efficient and socially inclusive while remaining globally competitive. The aim was to take examples from across Indian states and other emerging economies to talk about solutions to mobilise climate-aligned finance, especially at the sub-national level.

With a focus on key enablers and challenges to the flow of finance, the discussion unpacked the possible governance structures, financial mechanisms, sectoral priorities and project pipelines already present in India and other emerging economies, lessons arising from these, and the possibilities of replicating and scaling them up.

The event opened with welcome remarks from Simon Dikau, Global Director, CETEx, followed by context-setting from Utkarsh Patel, Visiting Fellow, CETEx and Ujjawal (Energiva Ventures), who framed the discussion around the central role of state and municipal governments in delivering India’s green transition. Two Indian state-level case studies anchored the discussion, presenting how states are taking leadership roles in actioning climate growth strategies, through the Haryana Green Climate Resilient Fund and Tamil Nadu Green Climate Company. These case studies illustrate a range of approaches to mobilise climate finance at the sub-national level.

The roundtable followed, with representatives from different emerging economies, think tanks and academics.

Key takeaways from the roundtable discussion

• The finance gap is most acute at the sub-national and local level, where action must be delivered but domestic capital mobilisation remains limited. Adaptation finance was flagged as a persistent gap.
• De-risking private investment emerged as a recurring priority. Participants pointed to the need for guarantee funds, new risk instruments and tax incentives to draw private capital into sub-national climate projects.
• Moving beyond low-hanging fruit: the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation’s approach was cited as an example of investing in non-commercial or early-stage technology, rather than only backing already-bankable projects.
• Piloting as a replicability mechanism: successful pilots were discussed as a route to unlocking larger multilateral funding, by demonstrating models that can be scaled up or adapted elsewhere.
• Comparative models of private sector mobilisation were raised as examples of finance structures.
• Participants highlighted the need for better emissions measurement at the sub-national level, alongside a stronger pipeline of investable projects.
• Triggers to unlock finance: discussion converged on the need to build frameworks that assess individual state requirements and technology readiness, in order to identify what exactly would unlock finance flows in a given context.