CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Monday issued orders to set up `1,000-crore Tamil Nadu Green Climate Fund (TNGCF) to support various climate change-related initiatives, mitigation and greening projects.
The first-of-its-kind fund in the country will mobilise resources from government, development finance institutions, and international climate funds. The fund will be managed by the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation (TNIFMC) Ltd with a greenshoe option of another Rs 1,000 crore.
The initial commitment sponsor for TNGCF from the state government will be Rs 100 crore. The fund will be created through equity, equity-linked instruments, debentures, and convertible instruments, among others, with a 10-year tenure extendable by up to two years.
Supriya Sahu, additional chief secretary to government in environment, forests and climate change department, told TNIE that the process of registering TNGCF as a category 1 (social venture fund) under the SEBI Alternative Investment Fund Regulations, 2012, will be completed in a week or 10 days. “Once the registration is done, we will open the fund for private players for collaborative effort.”
Plan to climate-proof villages, districts in TN
The indicative list of the investment under the fund includes climate-friendly products/ alternatives, pollution control technologies/ products, renewable green energy, carbon/greenhouse gas reduction technologies and projects, forest development/ conservation including ecotourism, EV/ hybrids and associated infrastructure, waste management, water resource management, sustainable agriculture, etc, a press release said.
The government has already set up three key missions — Tamil Nadu Green Mission, Tamil Nadu Climate Change Mission and the Tamil Nadu Wetlands Mission — and has also set up Tamil Nadu Green Climate Company (TNGCC), a Special Purpose Vehicle, to steer climate action plans effectively.
As part of the climate change mission, the state government is integrating climate concerns of the state with its development plans at the grassroots level to climate-proof districts and villages.The government has recently constituted a governing council on climate change with several eminent people, senior secretaries from various key departments, and sector experts.
A climate studio in Anna University has also been operationalised.