8 December 2010: The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) Annual Report 2010, presented during the Cancun Climate Change Conference, presents projects that have taken place in more than 40 developing countries with the support of the US$6 billion Climate Investment Funds.

Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Haruhiko Kuroda, President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group – representing three of the five CIF partners, along with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) – were joined by Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon in heralding the two-year-old Funds as a path-breaking climate partnership.

The CIF Annual Report emphasizes: the successful design of the CIF, which has a unique governance structure with an equal balance of developed and developing countries; and a broad array of institutional, civil society, private sector, and indigenous stakeholders that actively participate as observers. The report also evaluates the lessons learned in each of the programmes, noting the second year’s work program focus on: supporting country-led development of CIF Investment Plans and country-led preparation of Strategic Programs for Climate Resilience; and putting the Forest Investment Program (FIP) and the Scaling-Up Renewable Energy Program in Low Income Countries (SREP) in operation.

Over the next years, work under the Clean Technology Fund is expected to help reduce approximately 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide, roughly comparable to a third of the annual emissions of the EU. [CIF Funds Annual Report]