The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) are a unique pair of financing instruments designed to pilot what can be achieved to initiate transformational change towards low-carbon and climate-resilient development through scaled-up financing channeled through the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).

 

Recognizing that poverty reduction, economic growth and climate change must be addressed in tandem, the CIF were agreed in 2008 to open the opportunity for blending funding for climate solutions with other MDB, national and private sector development resources, thereby leveraging substantial additional funds.

 

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 two CIF funds are the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), financing scaled-up demonstration, deployment and transfer of low-carbon technologies for significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions within country investment plans; and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF), financing targeted programs in developing countries to pilot new climate or sectoral approaches with scaling-up potential.

 

Donor countries have pledged over US$6 billion to the CIF.

 

The CIFs are implemented jointly by the MDBs: African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Bank, and World Bank Group.