Leadership (Abuja)
30 September 2008
Leading indus-trialised nations have pledged more than N713 billion (about 6.1 billion dollars) to the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), according to a statement issued yesterday by the World Bank.
The statement, which was made available in Abuja , said the CIF is a set of international investment instrument designed to provide interim scaled-up funding to check increase in Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.
The fund, said the statement, is focused on helping developing countries mitigate GHG emissions.
The statement said the agreement was reached at a World Bank meeting in Washington at the weekend, and had in attendance representatives of 10 countries.
The countries are Australia, France, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The statement said the first proposals to benefit from the funding under the CIF would be announced early in 2009.
"Today, we are uniting to fight global climate change," the statement quoted the World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick as saying.
"I want to thank all the donor countries for their generous pledges of more than N713 billion ( 6.1 billion dollars) to the CIF and their commitment to climate action, " he added.
According to Zoellick, these funds are a concrete step forward toward reconciling the challenge of global climate change with the challenge of development and overcoming poverty.
The statement said the CIF were created through a consultative process involving a series of multi-stakeholder design meetings, which, it noted, took account of extensive global climate change consultations held by the World Bank Group.
The Funds, according to the statement, will be administered through Multilateral Development Banks.
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