India, France to launch climate fund for Indo-Pacific countries

New Delhi: New Delhi and Paris are set to launch a fund later this year to support startups and climate-focused innovations in countries in the Indo-Pacific region, according to two persons aware of the matter. 

The text of the fund agreement as well as funding amount have been agreed, with projects likely to be funded in the Western Indian Ocean as well as the broader Indo-Pacific.

The two countries agreed to set up the fund after Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to France for Bastille Day in July 2023.

“Through a unique model of Triangular Development Cooperation, India and France will work on setting up the Indo-Pacific Triangular Cooperation (IPTDC) Fund aimed at supporting climate and SDG focused innovations and startups from third countries of the Indo-Pacific, with the goal of facilitating the scaling up of green technologies being developed in the region,” the two sides said in their ‘Horizon 2047’ joint vision statement released during Modi’s visit. 

France is a key strategic partner for India in the Indo-Pacific, with overseas territories in the region including La Reunion, New Caledonia and French Polynesia.

“Both countries will jointly identify the projects to be supported through the IPTDC Fund. This initiative would be a significant step ahead in providing viable and transparent funding alternatives to innovators in the Indo-Pacific region and would also be a key pillar of the India-EU Connectivity Partnership launched in 2021,” they went on to say.

Queries mailed to the Indian and French foreign ministries went unanswered at press time.

India has triangular cooperation mechanisms with Germany, the US and UK. India is working with Japan and Bangladesh to improve trade and connectivity through the Bay of Bengal Northeast Industrial Value Chain concept. 

The goal is to create a new regional supply chain that will attract manufacturing to the Northeast and link these comparatively underdeveloped states to the broader Asian market. With Germany, India has started projects in Ghana, Cameroon, Malawi, and Peru. 

Current projects span from promoting agri-business among women in Malawi to employing agri-tech to boost potato production in Cameroon. The official German organization for technical support, GIZ, says projects in Ethiopia and Madagascar are also being assessed.

Under the Global Innovation Partnership, India and the UK are investigating a similar concept that would use Indian innovation to promote development in strategically important third nations. 

Mint earlier reported that discussions are underway on potential collaboration on renewable energy projects in Sri Lanka as part of the finalization of the list of target countries for this program, which is expected to happen early in 2019.