Many Indian financial institutions have begun exploring opportunities to reduce the carbon intensity of their portfolios and exposure to climate risks. These efforts build on the extensive experience of addressing other environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities such as gender equality and social inclusion. However, there is no comprehensive evidence on the state of knowledge or common practices that are applied by Indian banks towards ESG or climate risk management.

The aim of this landscape analysis is to map the current knowledge of risk management and credit-lending teams in participating institutions and document the gaps in knowledge of ESG and climate risk management. This first-of-its-kind assessment outlines how 10 front-running Indian financial institutions handle ESG issues in credit decisions and balance sheet risk assessments.