Climate-Smart Finance Initiative
Empowering banks across south asia with practical adaptation and resilience analytics, institutional capacity, and new A&R SME loan products.
Target reach
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Target A&R mobilization
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Partnerships and design
Build local partnerships, establish priority SME segments, and build governance, safeguards and learning systems.
Climate-risk analytics
Deploy accessible climate risk assessment tools targeted at SMEs, refine hazard and vulnerability models, and integrate decision-ready outputs into bank workflows.
A&R Product design and pilots
Translate risk and resilience taxonomies into practical A&R eligibility criteria, credit guidance and new SME loan products.
Learning and scaling
Evaluate outcomes, build practitioner capacity, share evidence and create a roadmap for broader adoption and capital-market scale.
Unlocking adaptation and resilience finance for SMEs
SMEs are highly exposed to extreme heat and climate disruption, yet the information, standards and products needed to finance resilience remains scarce.
Missing firm-level risk data
Most SMEs lack affordable, forward-looking analytics that translate physical hazards into operational and financial implications.
Unclear A&R definitions
Without operational taxonomies and eligibility criteria, lenders struggle to identify and consistently assess resilience investments.
Limited bankable products
Mainstream SME lending rarely includes fit-for-purpose structures for cooling, retrofits, resilient equipment or worker protection.
From Climate Risk to Adaptation Finance
Building block
Initiative contribution
System outcome
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Tools, capacity, products and evidence
Decision-ready SME assessments
Accessible diagnostics identify priority risks and practical resilience investments.
Embedded bank capacity
Practitioners learn to use physical-risk analytics and A&R criteria in day-to-day lending.
Taxonomy-aligned products
New lending structures connect credible resilience measures to accessible SME capital.
Open evidence base
Aggregated learning supports replication, policy dialogue and broader market adoption.
Help scale practical adaptation and resilience finance for India's SMEs.
Partner on analytics, capacity building, product design and market adoption.
StepChange in the News
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