Carbon credits and sustainability solutions firm EKI Energy Services (EKI) has launched a ₹10 billion (~$121 million) Climate Impact Fund in partnership with Impact Capital Asset Management (ICAM). The fund will be used to develop climate change mitigation projects focusing on community development across remote locations in India.

EKI will invest up to ₹2 billion (~$24.29 million) in a phased manner to empower greenhouse gas mitigation projects across the country. ICAM will raise the balance corpus from institutional investors and manage the fund. The fund will be incorporated as a variable capital company in Singapore, with a nominal capital held by EKI and ICAM in the ratio of 51:49.

The fund will focus on high-impact community development projects such as clean cooking through the large-scale deployment of improved cook stoves, access to clean drinking water through water filtration systems, and energy-saving lighting solutions like LED bulbs and waste management.

“The world is fast striding towards a net-zero future. We, as climate warriors, want to empower this journey with focused investments in climate projects globally. We also want to strengthen our focus on community development. We are delighted to take a significant and concrete step toward ensuring increased climate mitigation in India and other parts of the world. We promise to continue developing projects that address larger community issues while enabling nature restoration,” said Manish Dabkara, Chairman & MD, EKI.

The initiative is expected to enhance EKI’s global reach. The projects would generate carbon credits for its investors by delivering emission reductions, which the investors can use to offset their carbon emissions or earn monetary benefits by selling the carbon credits. The projects that will receive the funding will be deployed across remote locations in India and select countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

EKI was part of an alliance of cleantech companies that formed the Carbon Association of India, a strategic alliance to transform India’s carbon market. The alliance aims to take climate-centric initiatives to empower India’s journey to a net-zero economy and achieve the climate goals per the Paris Climate Accord and India’s commitment at COP26.

In August, Power Minister R.K. Singh introduced a Bill to amend the Energy Conservation Act to enable India’s carbon credit trading market. The Bill made it mandatory for buildings with a connected load of 100 kW to meet their energy requirements from renewable energy sources. The proposed legislation has provisions for issuing carbon credit certificates and provides a framework for carbon credits trading.