Ahead of this week's meeting of the trust funds of the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds, 100 groups have called for the CIFs to finally sunset, now that the Green Climate Fund is clearly operational. Two-thirds of the groups are from developing countries.

Here's the letter.

June 14, 2016

Dear Trust Fund Committee Members of the Strategic Climate Fund and Clean Technology Fund:

Now that it has approved projects and is beginning to disburse money, the Green Climate Fund is clearly operational. It is thus also unambiguously clear that it is time for the World Bank’s Climate Investment Funds to sunset.

Since their inception, the CIFs were meant to be interim funds. In 2008, the sunset clauses of the Strategic Climate Fund and the Clean Technology Fund said, “…the SCF will take necessary steps to conclude its operations once a new [UNFCCC] financial architecture is effective…” and “the CTF will take necessary steps to conclude its operations once a new [UNFCCC] financial architecture is effective.”[1] That new financial architecture – the Green Climate Fund – is now indisputably effective. The CIFs’ raison d'etre has expired; attempts to reinterpret the obvious must cease.

Unlike the multilateral development bank-driven CIFs, the GCF was set up according to the principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. With a governance structure evenly split between developed and developing countries, the GCF is founded on a “country-driven approach” accountable to the institutions and people in developing countries, and has placed a premium on direct access to funds by developing country entities. The GCF promotes a gender-sensitive approach to its funding – the first climate fund to do so from the outset of its activities.

While lessons learned from the CIFs should be applied to the GCF, efforts to spin the CIFs as complementary to the GCF are disingenuous. Resources directed toward the CIFs are resources that should instead be directed to the GCF. Any effort to raise new sources of finance for the CIFs should cease immediately, and there should be no new investments.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

11.11.11-Coalition of the Flemish North-South Movement, Belgium

ActionAid International        

Aksi for Gender, Social and Ecological Justice, Indonesia

All Nepal Peasants Federation, Nepal

All Nepal Women’s Association, Nepal

Alliance Sud, Switzerland

Alyansa Tigil Mina (Alliance Against Mining), Philippines

Aniban ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura, Philippines

Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, Thailand

Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development, Regional

ATTAC Japan

BankTrack, Netherlands

Beyond Beijing Committee, Nepal

Both ENDS, Netherlands

Bretton Woods Project, United Kingdom

Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, Philippines

Campaign for Climate Justice, Nepal

Carbon Market Watch, Belgium

Center for Biological Diversity, United States

Center for Environment, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Center for Popular Democracy, United States

Center for Socio-Economic Research and Development, Nepal

Centre for 21st century Issues (C21st), Nigeria

Centre for Social Impact Studies, Ghana

Centre pour l'Environnement et le Développement, Cameroon

Centro Humboldt, Nicaragua

Centro Salvadoreño de Tecnologia Apropiada/Friends of the Earth El Salvador

Christian Aid, United Kingdom

Civic Concern Nepal

Climate Action Network Europe, Regional

Climate Change & Development NGO Alliance, Azerbaijan      

Climate Finance Group for Latin America and the Caribbean (GFLAC), Mexico

CNCD-11.11.11, Belgium

Consumers Protection Association, Lesotho

Digo Bikas Institute, Nepal

Ecological Christian Organisation, Uganda

Ecological Society of the Philippines

Environics Trust, India

Farmers Forum South Asia, Regional

Finance & Trade Watch, Austria

Food & Water Watch, United States

Foundation HELP, Tanzania

Freedom from Debt Coalition, Philippines

Friends of the Earth - England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Friends of the Earth United States

Gender Action, United States

Global Catholic Climate Movement Pilipinas, Philippines

Green Development Advocates, Cameroon

Haburas Foundation/ Friends of the Earth Timor Leste

Heinrich Böll Stiftung North America

Himalaya Niti Abhiyan, India

Human Rights Alliance Nepal

Indian Social Action Forum, India

Indigenous Environmental Network, United States/International

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, United States

Institute for Policy Studies, Climate Policy Program, United States

Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), Regional

International.Lawyers.Org, Switzerland

Jagaran Nepal

Jamaa Resource Initiatives, Kenya

Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement, Niger

Kitanglad Integrated NGOs, Inc., Philippines

Korea Federation for Environmental Movements, South Korea

KRuHA – Peoples Coalition on Water, Indonesia

Labour, Health and Human Rights Development Centre, Nigeria

LDC Watch, International

Leads Nigeria

Les Amis de la Terre France 

Migrant Forum in Asia, Regional

National Coastal Women's Movement, India

National Hawkers Federation, India

National Women Peasants Association, Nepal

Nepal Youth Peasants Association, Nepal

Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Nigeria

NOAH Friends of the Earth Denmark

PALAG Mindanao, Philippines

Panay Rural Development Center, Inc., Philippines

Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, Philippines

Philippine Network for Rural Development and Democratization, Philippines

Policy Analysis and Research Institute of Lesotho

Population, Health, Environment Ethiopia Consortium, Ethiopia

Practical Action, United Kingdom

Reacción Climática, Bolivia

River Basin Friends, India

Rural Reconstruction Nepal

Sahabat Alam Malaysia/Friends of the Earth Malaysia

Sanlakas Philippines

Solidaritas Perempuan, Indonesia

South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication, Regional

South Asia Food Sovereignty Network, Regional

South Asia Peasants Coalition, Regional

Southern Oregon Climate Action Now, United States

Students for a Just and Stable Future, United States

SustainUS, United States

Third World Network, Malaysia

Trade Union Policy Institute of Nepal

VOICE Bangladesh  

WomanHealth Philippines    

Women Welfare Society, Nepal

Worldview-The Gambia        

By Karen Orenstein

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