IE Thinc session today: How civic bodies can leverage capital markets to solve climate-related problems

The repeated incidents are now forcing cities to make course corrections and begin efforts to climate-proof themselves. Though the larger battle against climate change has to be fought at the global level, the adaptation responses and climate-proofing needs to be done locally. It is the urban local bodies that have to prepare for and respond to events like heat-waves, extreme rainfall or urban flooding.

But they lack resources, both financial and human capabilities, to deal with a crisis like this. Most of the urban local bodies are severely cash-strapped, and lack the finances to take up additional work. At the same time, there are a lot of institutions willing to invest in green projects, but there aren’t enough viable ones to fund. A handshake needs to be enabled and that is what Thursday’s event, IE Thinc: Our Cities, organised by The Indian Express in partnership with Omidyar Network India, seeks to facilitate.

A session titled “How can municipal bodies leverage capital markets to solve climate-related problems at the local level,” in Mumbai Thursday would bring together leaders of a couple of the most energetic and progressive municipal bodies, along with some of the leading players from financial institutions to discuss climate solutions for the cities. Ashwani Bhatia, wholetime member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will deliver the keynote address. Municipal commissioners of Pimpri Chinchwad and Vadodara, Shekhar Singh and Dilip Rana respectively, will join Abhay Kantak, senior director (urban infrastructure) at CRISIL and Arnab Chaudhury, EVP and Group head of debt capital markets at SBI CAPS, along with Shilpa Kumar, partner in Omidyar Network India, for a panel discussion.

The discussion will be moderated by Amitabh Sinha, Editor (Climate and Science), The Indian Express. The Mumbai session is the fourth in a series of programmes that The Indian Express has been organising with the Omidyar Network India on the state of Indian cities. The first of these events was held in New Delhi in December last year, followed by events in Bengaluru and Chennai, each focused on a different theme related to city governance.