India has the potential to unlock over $150 Billion and 200,000 clean jobs by advancing 65 clean industrial projects to investment stage, according to ITA’s India Insights Briefing

Mumbai : The Industrial Transition Accelerator (ITA), a global multi-stakeholder initiative launched at COP28, today released its India Insights Briefing, ‘Unlocking India’s Clean Industrialisation Opportunity ’ to help catalyse action toward decarbonising India’s heavy-emitting industries in conjunction with its official launch of the ITA India Project Support Programme.     

The Project Support Programme will accelerate India’s flagship industrial projects toward investment readiness, focusing on clean, low-carbon growth across chemicals, steel, cement, aluminium, aviation, and shipping sectors.

The India Insights Briefing, developed in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), brings together expertise from industry and global advisory leaders.  It highlights India’s clean industrial potential:

  • with a pipeline of 65 commercial-scale projects
  • representing over US $150 billion in potential investment
  • 160–175 million tonnes of annual CO₂ equivalent abatement
  • more than 200,000 direct and indirect jobs

The report finds that India holds the world’s third-largest pipeline of low- and near-zero-emission industrial projects following China and the U.S., a testament to the country’s growing leadership in sustainable industrial development.

However, only six projects have passed Final Investment Decision (FID) to date. Structural challenges, including uncertain clean demand, high capital costs, regulatory bottlenecks in lead markets and under-developed infrastructure continue to hinder progress toward FID.

The ITA’s India Project Support Programme seeks to address these bottlenecks by mobilising action across stakeholders to align policy, demand, and finance, helping a first wave of flagship projects to bankable status.

Key regions and sectors for India’s clean industrial revolution 

The 65 mapped clean industrial projects are concentrated in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. These emerging clean industrial hubs, with their strong renewable energy availability, port access, and enabling state policies, position these regions as hubs for clean ammonia, methanol, and low-carbon metals.

Across sectors, India’s clean industry pipeline reflects accelerating progress:

  • Chemicals: The sector accounts for nearly 80 percent of the project pipeline, with 50 clean ammonia and methanol projects representing 30-35 million tonnes per annum of capacity. In hydrogen-equivalent terms, this figure already exceeds the National Green Hydrogen Mission’s 5 MTPA hydrogen production target.
  • Steel: Four commercial-scale projects and several pilots in hydrogen-based reduction and carbon capture are under development, including a 4 MTPA low-carbon initiative in Maharashtra that anchors early momentum.
  • Cement: Producers are piloting LC3 and carbon capture technologies while targeting 25–30 percent thermal substitution by 2030 to cut emissions intensity.
  • Aviation: Three Sustainable Aviation Fuel projects and several pilots are showing early momentum with potential to create tremendous export opportunity for the country, provided feedstock and HEFA and alcohol-to-jet routes scale as planned.
  • Aluminium: Five projects, including renewable energy-backed smelters and new low-emission plants, have the potential to sharply reduce sectoral emissions if grid and storage capacity expand on schedule.

Overcoming the investment barriers

Investment barriers now stem from market formation challenges rather than technical limitations. A lack of binding long-term offtake contracts limit revenue visibility, undermining      banks’ confidence to lend to project developers. First-of-a-kind projects rely heavily on equity financing and face long lead-times to obtain regulatory approvals and clearances, while logistics for hydrogen, carbon, and port integration remain underdeveloped. Export competitiveness is also at risk under the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and future international regulations, exposing India’s steel and aluminium exports to rising carbon costs.

Through the India Project Support Programme, ITA will focus on clean demand creation via voluntary and regulatory measures in domestic and international markets, improving project viability through blended finance and de-risking measures, shared infrastructure for hydrogen and carbon networks, and policy alignment across lead markets. The programme will run      through 2026, preparing selected projects for investment decisions while strengthening overall      investment conditions across sectors.

The India launch also aligns with a broader global shift in clean industrial development. New data from the Mission Possible Partnership (MPP)’s Global Project Tracker records 1,001 commercial-scale projects in progress worldwide across aluminium, cement, chemicals, fuels, and steel, reflecting a clear transition from planning to execution. The tracker confirms India has one of the most dynamic national pipelines and can be a key player in the emerging industrial sunbelt, where renewable energy resources and supportive policy frameworks are creating a foundation for modern manufacturing.

The Global Project Tracker confirms that stronger demand-side policies and financing systems will determine how quickly these projects reach investment readiness. The India Project Support Programme is structured to deliver on exactly these priorities by aligning policy, demand, and capital to move the next wave of projects to the investment stage.

James Schofield, Managing Director, Industrial Transition Accelerator, said: “India’s industrial transition is central to both its growth objectives and the wider global decarbonisation effort. With one of the largest project pipelines worldwide, the challenge is no longer vision; it is execution. The India Project Support Programme will focus on unlocking demand, de-risking finance, and fast-tracking projects that can define India’s leadership in clean manufacturing.  India’s commitment to build clean now would not only benefit the country domestically but also assist global momentum and present a strong supply of financed clean industrial projects to COP31 in November 2026.”

Sumit Gupta, APAC Leader – Climate & Sustainability Practice, Boston Consulting Group, said: “India stands at a defining moment in the global clean industrial transformation. With a strong foundation of projects and growing private-sector momentum, the country is well placed to lead in scaling new low-carbon technologies. The opportunity spans clean fuels, green materials, and emerging manufacturing value chains. The ITA India Project Support Programme can help mobilise stakeholders and accelerate the next wave of investment-ready projects.”

Yash Kashyap, India Lead, Industrial Transition Accelerator, said: “The next 24 months will be decisive in determining which of India’s clean industry projects move from plans to plants. The pipeline is strong, the private sector is ambitious, and the policy base is taking shape. Our focus is to integrate these elements, aggregate demand, standardise bankable contracts, and build shared infrastructure to get projects investment-ready.”