The Strategic Climate Fund (SCF) is one of the two funds of the Climate Investment Funds. It serves as an overarching framework to support three targeted programs with dedicated funding to pilot new approaches with potential for scaled-up, transformational action aimed at a specific climate change challenge or sectoral response.

Targeted programs under the SCF include:

• The Forest Investment Program (FIP), approved in May 2009, aims to support developing countries’ efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation by providing scaled-up financing for readiness reforms and public and private investments.  It will finance programmatic efforts to address the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation and to overcome barriers that have hindered past efforts to do so.

• The Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR), approved in November 2008, was the first program under the SCF to become operational.  Its objective is to pilot and demonstrate ways to integrate climate risk and resilience into core development planning, while complementing other ongoing activities.   

• The Program for Scaling-Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries (SREP), approved in May 2009, is aimed at demonstrating the social, economic, and environmental viability of low carbon development pathways in the energy sector. It seeks to create new economic opportunities and increase energy access through the production and use of renewable energy. 

 Through its targeted programs, SCF is designed to:

1. Provide experience and lessons through learning-by-doing.
2. Channel new and additional financing for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
3. Provide incentives for scaled-up and transformational action in the context of poverty reduction.
4. Provide incentives to maintain, restore and enhance carbon-rich natural ecosystems, and maximize the co-benefits of sustainable development.