The week-long meetings of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) also made progress on support for developing country action on renewable energies, forests and building climate-resilient development, according to the host Asian Development Bank (ADB).
CIF’s Clean Technology Fund (CTF) endorsed investment plans for Colombia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, boosting to 13 the number of plans in place around the world. It also approved US$4.3bn of CTF co-financing to projects ranging from solar power development to the greening of public transport systems.
ADB estimates that an additional US$36bn will be leveraged in coming years from the private sector and other sources, bringing the total to be mobilised to US$40 bn.
First meeting on finance since COP15
CIF was one of the first international meetings to focus on climate finance since the Copenhagen summit last December. In addition to the CTF, CIF's Strategic Climate Fund approved grants for Zambia and Nepal for climate adaptation, and selected Burkina Faso, Ghana, Indonesia, Lao PDR and Peru as the first pilot countries under the Forest Investment Program.
“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,” says ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda.
The CIF has allocated more than US$1bn for the Asia and Pacific region since their inception one year ago.
“We still have a lot to do, but the Climate Investment Funds are moving into high gear,” adds Katherine Sierra of the World Bank. “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.”
MENA solar project is major recipient of funds
Of the 13 currently-endorsed CTF Investment Plans, one of the largest (US$5.6bn) is for the regional Middle East and North Africa (MENA) concentrated solar power plan covering Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.
Other countries that have received CTF funding are Mexico (US$6.2bn), Thailand (4.2), Vietnam (3.4), Indonesia (3.1), Colombia (3), The Philippines (2.8), Ukraine (2.6), South Africa (2.3), Turkey (2.1), Egypt (1.9), Morocco (1.9) and Kazakhstan (US$1.3bn).
The CIF are financing instruments to initiate transformational change towards low-carbon and climate-resilient development through scaled-up financing from Multilateral Development Banks. The CTF finances demonstration, deployment and transfer of low-carbon technologies for GHG reductions and the Strategic Climate Fund finances targeted programmes in developing countries to pilot new climate or sectoral approaches.
The CIF are implemented by the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction & Development, Inter-American Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, and the World Bank.