The Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) were established in January 2008, and are administered by the  World Bank Group. They include a Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and a Strategic Climate Fund (SCF) that will support several lines of programming including a Pilot Program on Climate Resilience (PPCR), a Forest Investment Program (FIP), and a Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program (SREP). Regional Development Banks including the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are partners in the CIFs. The CIFs, and particularly the CTF, have had fundraising success….

The CIFs were prompted by a joint commitment from the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan to pool their efforts to “help developing countries bridge the gap between dirty and clean technology… and boost the World Bank’s ability to help developing countries tackle climate change.”1 By September 2008, some 12 donor governments had pledged $6.1 billion to the CIFs. The bulk of these funds are dedicated to the CTF, to support the deployment of clean energy technologies and make transformative reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trajectories in developing countries (donors to the CTF are listed in table 1 below). The Bush administration pledged $2 billion to the CTF between 2008 and 2011, making it the largest contributor to the fund. As of May 2009, the US Congress and Senate have not approved this appropriation. However, the Obama administration has asked for $500 million towards its commitments to the CTF as part of the US FY10 budget.

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