Speaking at the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) 2011 Partnership Forum being held in Cape Town, South Africa, President’s Envoy for Science and Technology Ahmed Shafeeq Ibrahim Moosa has said the CIF's Strategic Climate Fund gives priority to highly vulnerable least developed countries, including the small island developing states.
“As momentum grows for climate action on the ground, the CIFs can be a real game-changer,” added Moosa, who also co-chairs of the CIF’s Strategic Climate Fund.
The Madives has been selected as one of six pilot countries to receive funding for financing renewable energy investments in the country under the Climate Investment Funds´ Scaling Up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP).
In June 2010, the SREP sub- committee agreed on an indicative allocation of up to $30 million for Maldives, which are expected to leverage, additional resources on a scale of 1:4 (or approximately US$120 million). The additional funds would expectedly be mobilized by multilateral development banks, bilateral donors and more notably the private sector. The Maldives is also eligible to potentially access additional (up to US$ 60 million) SREP resources which are available in reserve. However, the reserve fund can be accessed by each of the six pilot countries based on defined criteria which will be developed by the SREP sub-committee.
The CIF forum in Cape Town brings together delegates from participant countries, five multilateral development banks, UN agencies, civil society, indigenous peoples, local communities, private sector, and other stakeholders to discuss CIF results and impact and chart strategic directions in climate financing. More than 250 stakeholders from 45 nations, including 15 African countries, are here for the two-day meeting.
This year’s forum features sessions on private sector engagement in mitigation and adaptation investments, scientific updates and guidance on prioritizing actions, climate modeling, and the development of local, clean technology manufacturing industries.
Maldives' Science Envoy Moosa, Co-chaired the Strategic Climate Funds Trust Fund Committee meetings on 23rd July and participated in the panel discussions of governance of the CIF's at the Partnership Forum today. Moosa will also be Co-Chairing the Joint Trust Funds Committees (Clean Technology Funds and Strategic Climate Funds) meetings to be held on Sunday 27th July.
The Maldives delegation at the CIF meetings and the Partnership Forum held in Cape Town this week is headed by Science & Technology Envoy Ahmed Moosa, Permanent Secretaries Ahmed Saleem and Yusuf Riza of Ministry of Housing & Environment and Ministry of Economic Development, respectively.
