Climate Investment Funds (CIF): Programmes, Access Routes and How They Work

CIF finance is organised into programmes, each with its own eligible countries and priorities:

• Clean Technology Fund (CTF): renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean transport, mostly in middle-income countries.
• Accelerating Coal Transition (ACT): retiring or repurposing coal power, with support for workers and communities.
• Renewable Energy Integration (REI): grids, storage and flexibility to absorb more renewable power.
• Industry Decarbonisation: cutting emissions in heavy industry.
• Strategic Climate Fund programmes: adaptation and resilience, forests and nature, and energy access in lower-income countries.

CIF finance is rarely the largest cheque. It is the cheapest and most flexible layer, used to lower the blended cost of a project, absorb early or technology risk, or make a first-of-its-kind deal acceptable to development banks and commercial lenders. CIF reports that its programmes have attracted many times their own value in co-finance.

The CIF Capital Markets Mechanism, launched with a first bond in 2024, raises additional money from investors against the Clean Technology Fund's balance sheet, expanding what CIF can commit.

You cannot apply to CIF directly. If your country is in a CIF programme, find its investment plan on the CIF website and contact the development bank leading the relevant component. Private companies should approach the bank's private sector department, such as IFC, AfDB's private sector team, ADB's private sector operations or IDB Invest.

Governments access CIF through a joint mission with the development banks, which leads to a country investment plan. Projects then move through each bank's normal approval process, with CIF funding blended into the bank's own loan or investment.

CIF-backed projects create opportunities for international developers, engineering firms, commercial lenders and investors co-financing alongside the development banks. Investment plans and the CIF project pipeline show where concessional money is committed, which signals where a co-financed deal is more likely to close.

Analysts and allocators can use CIF's published results and evaluations as benchmarks for concessional pricing and blended finance structures.