In 2008 donor countries have pledged over US$6 billion to the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) that were designed as an interim measure to strengthen the global knowledge base for low-carbon and climate-resilient growth solutions by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change The money will be used for demonstration projects that will implement climate change adaptation into existing economic development planning. Two funds constitute the CIF. One is the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) financing mitigation, which concentrates on reducing demand for emissions-intensive goods and services, increasing efficiency gains, increasing use and development of low-carbon technologies, and reducing non-fossil fuel emissions. CTF is to provide scaled up financing for the demonstration, deployment and transfer of low carbon technologies that have a significant potential for long-term greenhouse gas emissions savings. The second is the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF) , which focuses on financing targeted programs in developing countries to pilot new climate or sectoral approaches with scaling-up potential. Both trust fund committees have equal representation from developed and developing countries.

As Africa is generally considered to be continent hardest hit by climate change effects, three African countries have been selected as pilot countries for such funding.  Now these countries will receive a major boost, especially as each CIF dollar so far is leveraging an additional ten dollars in private and public investments. In Africa, the African Development Bank and the World Bank Group jointly implement the CIF, in cooperation with governments, United Nations and other partners.

The countries selected are  Mozambique, Niger and Zambia. This will  help transform their economies through climate resilience.

”These three share dramatic risks in potential loss of land, life and livelihoods as a result of climate change. They will each receive up to 50-70 million US dollars in grants and/or very low interest loans to help integrate climate risk and resilience into their core development planning.” a press release from the World Bank states. Each of these countries receives this money after demonstrating urgent need for resilience strategies and the commitment to rigorously integrate such strategies into their overall poverty reduction and development plans. In Africa, where access to energy is critical for economic growth and, therefore, poverty alleviation, the challenge is to help countries obtain the energy they need, without aggravating climate change.

The CTF has decided to support projects in three other African countries: South Africa, Morocco and Egypt. South Africa has a goal of generating four percent of the country’s electricity needs from renewable energy by 2013, improving energy efficiency by 12 percent by 2015 and providing 1 million households with solar water heating over the next five years. It will receive $500 million from the CTF in order to accomplish this goal, and it is expected that the new investments will mobilize additional financing of about 1$ billion from bilateral and multilateral funders, as well as the private sector. Morocco will receive $150 million to help reaching their goal of a 600% increase in wind power and a 15% reduction in energy use in buildings, industry, and transport by 2020. Egypt will use the $300 million to develop wind power and low carbon urban transport systems.

“The CIF support for Africa is coming at a critical time. Climate change has the potential to turn back the clock on hard won development gains across the continent,” says Katherine Sierra, Vice President of Sustainable Development at the World Bank,

Altogether six countries will receive $1.1 billion through CIF. This could help to heal the divide between developed and developing countries that has run down the center of climate change discussions. After the African boycott of UN climate talks in Barcelona at the beginning of this week, this is a fresh opportunity and a positive sign into the right direction.