30 January 2009: The Trust Fund Committees for the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds met on 27-30 January 2009, and identified which countries will be offered funding under the PPCR within the US$6 billion Climate Investment Funds. Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Tajikistan and Zambia have been invited to submit projects to the World Bank’s Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR), which will provide about US$500 million for scaled up action and transformational change in integrating climate resilience in national development planning.

The criteria used to identify the countries included the level of vulnerability to climate change hazards and risks, country preparedness to move towards climate resilient development plans, and country distribution across regions and types of hazards.
Two other programmes were also discussed: the Forest Investment Program, which will pilot and demonstrate investments to support REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) efforts of developing countries, with its next design meeting planned for 5-6 March 2009, in Washington DC, US; and the Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program, where a small multi-stakeholder working group will be convened on 9-10 March 2009, to prepare a draft design document. [World Bank Press Release] [Carbon Investment Funds Website]