Request for Applications: HCL ClimaForce Fund (India)

Aims

• The HCL ClimaForce Fund aims to accelerate low-carbon innovations in India’s cooling, buildings, and freight mobility sectors.

Focus Areas

• Cooling
  • With temperatures on the rise, access to cooling is critical for India’s people. Demand is set to grow eightfold by 2038 (India Cooling Action Plan).
  • Cooling is energy intensive and uses potent greenhouse gases as refrigerants, making low-carbon alternatives a priority for this sector.
• Buildings
  • India is urbanising rapidly, with building space projected to more than double by 2040 (International Energy Agency).
  • The buildings sector contributes more than 20% of India’s total emissions, from both energy use and embodied carbon (Climate Transparency Report).
• Freight Mobility
  • Over 70% of India’s goods move by road, making road freight a critical part of India’s economy (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways).
  • Freight emissions are projected to increase by 451% by 2050. Road freight is the largest contributor, accounting for 95% of freight’s CO2 emissions in 2020 (NITI Aayog and RMI).
• The initial phase of the HCL ClimaForce Fund will focus on two sectors in India:
  • Cooling
  • Buildings

Program Benefits

• The HCL ClimaForce Fund facilitates pilot projects between high-quality innovations with businesses that can benefit from them. They also provide grant funding, technical expertise, partnership opportunities, and third-party monitoring and verification.

Uses of the Fund

• This is a targeted grant that can only be used for pilot implementation. Funds from this initiative cannot be used for any other business activities.

Eligibility Criteria

• The program primarily supports solutions developed and implemented in India.
• A solution can be a product, business-model and/or a platform.

For more information, visit HCL Group.