IAS Shalini Agarwal talks about scaling of climate finance for building future-ready cities in her latest book

On occasion of release of this book Shri Ashish kumar Chauhan, MD & CEO, NSE said, “We appreciate the creative efforts put in behind writing a book “Shaping Tomorrow’s Cities: From Climate Risks to Green Opportunities” by Shalini Agarwal, IAS. The book rightly highlights the growing need for credible financial pathways to support sustainable urban development and energy transition.”

Capital markets are already playing an important role in enabling this transformation through market-based instruments like ESG bonds. Municipal bonds, Green bonds and financing of climate resilience projects on social stock exchange.

Through NSE which is a SEBI-regulated exchanges such ESG-focused debt securities have mobilized over ₹11,023 crore since 2017, including green municipal bond issuances such as those by Surat and Nashik, reflecting the growing role of capital markets in financing sustainability-linked investments.

In parallel, India’s municipal bond market has also gradually evolved, with about ₹4,540 crore raised through 31 issuances by 22 municipal corporations through exchange platforms, demonstrating how municipalities can access transparent and efficient market mechanisms to finance urban infrastructure and strengthen local public finance.

Alongside debt markets, green equity is also emerging as an important avenue for capital formation, with around 16% of IPO proceeds of approximately ₹27,000 crore (~USD 3.2 billion) in CY2024 and ₹29,000 crore (~USD 3.5 billion) in CY2025 from both Mainboard and SME companies is being directed towards sectors supporting the energy transition and sustainability.

Taken together, these developments reflect how market infrastructure can support the scaling of climate finance and contribute to building resilient and future-ready cities.