The week-long meetings of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), held at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) headquarters, also made progress on support for developing country action on forests, renewable energies and building climate-resilient development.
Solar power and sustainable public transport
The CIF Clean Technology Fund (CTF) endorsed investment plans for Colombia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. There are now 13 plans in place around the world (see below) and some $4.3 billion of CTF co-financing allocated to projects ranging from solar power development to the greening of public transport systems. It is estimated that an additional $36 billion will be leveraged in the coming years from other sources, including the private sector, bringing the total to be mobilised to $40 billion.
ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda announced last Thursday that the CIF has allocated more than a billion dollars for the Asia and Pacific region since their inception one year ago.
"We are encouraged that our developing member countries are taking a strong lead in turning their economies onto low-carbon, climate resilient pathways and are engaging the Climate Investment Funds to act more quickly and more ambitiously in response to the global climate challenge," Mr. Kuroda said at the opening of the annual CIF Partnership Forum, which was held back-to-back with the various CIF trust fund committees.
Better forest stewardship
In addition to the CTF, government representatives on the CIF's Strategic Climate Fund (SCF) committees approved grants for Zambia and Nepal to better respond to the challenge of adaptation, and selected the first pilot countries under the Forest Investment Program (FIP): Burkina Faso, Ghana, Indonesia, Lao PDR and Peru. The FIP, designed to provide investments that help countries better manage their forests, also approved a consultation process for designing a special grant mechanism for indigenous peoples and local communities.
World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development Katherine Sierra said that the CIF was moving from a planning, programming phase to one of implementation.
"We still have a lot to do, but the Climate Investment Funds are moving into high gear," Ms. Sierra said. “The ultimate solution for climate finance will be under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, but the CIF can provide important lessons in terms of governance, leveraging and scalability. As climate change threatens to push back hard won development gains it is critical that we start showing what can be done, to demonstrate the art of the possible."
The CIF governance models – with equal representation from both developed and developing countries – can provide important lessons and a positive contribution to the ongoing UNFCCC negotiations.
The CIF 2010 Partnership Forum, also held last week, saw the first gathering of all CIF stakeholders since CIF operations began. Some 300 representatives of governments, nongovernmental organizations, indigenous peoples and the private sector reviewed the first year of CIF operations.
The estimated totals for the 13 currently endorsed CTF Investment Plans (in $ millions) are Colombia (2,995), Egypt (1,921); Indonesia (3,110); Kazakhstan (1,269); Mexico (6,197); Morocco (1,950); The Philippines (2,780); South Africa (2,350); Thailand (4,263); Turkey (2,100); Ukraine (2,605); Vietnam (3,445) and the regional Middle East and North Africa concentrated solar power plan covering Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia (5,604).
The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) are unique financing instruments designed to test what can be achieved to initiate transformational change towards low-carbon and climate-resilient development through scaled-up financing channelled through the Multilateral Development Banks. The Clean Technology Fund (CTF) finances scaled up demonstration, deployment and transfer of low-carbon technologies for significant greenhouse gas reductions within country investment plans; and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF) finances targeted programs in developing countries to pilot new climate or sectoral approaches with scaling-up potential.
Both the CTF and SCF trust fund committees have equal representation from developed and developing countries. Recognizing the imperative of climate change deliberations underway in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the CIF were designed as an interim measure to strengthen the global knowledge base for low-carbon and climate-resilient growth solutions.
The CIF are implemented jointly by the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, and World Bank.
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