India Requires $1.5 Trillion Climate Investment by 2030: Deloitte

India will need to spend around $1.5 trillion through 2030 to implement its climate targets and accelerate energy transition across key sectors, according to a new Deloitte India report. The report cites the scale of capital to finance India's climate action masterplan, with focus on renewables, clean fuels, sustainable infrastructure, and emerging technology.

To achieve its target of 500 GW of renewable power generation capacity by 2030, India would have to add another 300 GW on top of the current 200 GW. The cost of this investment is expected to be $200 billion to $250 billion. All this money will go into sophisticated manufacturing, grid integration, and enhancing the national power grid of the country. Concurrently, the scale-up is also going to demand a huge increase in energy storage capacity, with estimated requirements for funds at between $250 billion and $300 billion.

Besides electricity, India's policy of clean fuel is expected to attract investments between $170 billion and $180 billion. Bioethanol, methanol, compressed biogas, green hydrogen, and sustainable aviation fuel are the important sectors. Government blending obligations and decarbonization targets will be strongest drivers of capital investment in these sectors.

Sustainable transport is the second most important pillar of investment strategy. Deloitte has estimated the cost of establishing a green transport system that is complementary to economic and environmental objectives between $600 billion and $650 billion. Water management infrastructure like sourcing, treatment, recycling, and conservation will range from $60 billion to $75 billion.

In agriculture, green strategies such as precision agriculture, agroforestry, and regenerative agriculture will have to be invested in to the value of $20 billion to $22 billion. Digital technology is also considered in the report as one of the drivers of India's climate transition. Digital climate risk forecasting systems, artificial intelligence-based monitoring systems, and blockchain-based carbon tracking systems are expected to receive investments of up to $65 billion.

Deloitte's report identifies collective capital deployment in all these sectors to develop climate resilience, lower emissions, and enhance energy security. It also indicates financial products like green bonds and blended finance structures will play a pivotal role to mobilize private and public investment at scale.

Overall, the report places climate financing as a green imperative but also an economic and strategic imperative for India. The guesstimate of $1.5 trillion in investment needed captures the scale of opportunity as well as a sense of urgency to develop sustainable infrastructure across sectors of energy, agriculture, transport, water, and digital infrastructure. 

Source: Deloitte India
Credit: Nirmal Menon, July 20, 2025