CIF Receives $765 Million Injection

The Climate Investment Funds (CIF), an institution that finances programs to cut greenhouse gas emissions, has received an injection of $765 million that increased CIF's total pledges to $8.3 billion, according to Mafalda Duarte, who manages the funds.

The CIF, which gets its money from development banks and 14 donor countries, maintains five financing lines to 63 middle income and developing countries.

The fresh money will help CIF expand to new countries and bridge gaps on financing on some of its current programs, Duarte wrote in a note on the institution's website on Monday while attending United Nations climate talks in Lima, Peru.

The Clean Technology Fund is the largest of the CIF's financing programs, with $3.9 billion approved so far to implement 70 renewable energy projects.

The CIF also invests in adaptation to climate change and in programs to avoid deforestation.

Financing the transition to less pollutant economies is one of the major tasks for negotiators in the talks and an issue that divides rich and poor countries.

Although the total pledges to the CIF and also to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) are close to $10 billion each, experts say that much more is needed to prepare least developed countries for a transition to less carbon-intensive societies.

Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira