Donor nations pledge over $6.1 bln to Climate Investment Funds

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Leading industrialized nations pledged Friday more than 6.1 billion U.S. dollars to the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) to tackle the challenge of global climate change.

Meeting at the World Bank in Washington, representatives of 10 countries -- Australia, France, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain, the United States -- emphasized their support for the Climate Investment Funds, formally approved on July 1 by the World Bank.

The first proposals to benefit from funding under the CIF are expected to be announced early in 2009, according to a statement released by the bank.

"These funds are a concrete step forward toward reconciling the challenge of global climate change with the challenge of development and overcoming poverty," said World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick.

"We hope it is only the beginning, however, and that other nations will also contribute to enable even more financing for climate action," he added.

The Climate Investment Funds were created through a consultative process involving a series of multi-stakeholder design meetings and taking account of extensive global climate change consultations held by the World Bank over the past nine months.

Consultations took place with potential recipients and donors, the United Nations family, other multilateral development banks, civil society organizations, and the private sector.

Developing countries will have an equal voice in the governance structures of the funds, and decisions on the use of funds will be made by consensus.

Friday's pledging conference was a major step forward in "building the financial base of the new Clean Technology Fund," said Undersecretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury, David McCormick. He announced the United States will make a 2 billion dollar contribution over three years.

Meanwhile, Britain announced a commitment of 800 million pounds(about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars), and Japan said it will contribute "up to 1.2 billion dollars" to the CIF.