This region includes the world’s most populous nation — China — on one end of the spectrum and some of the most sparsely populated countries in the world on the other. Known as small island developing states (SIDS), they include the Marshall Islands, Samoa, and the world’s third-smallest nation — Nauru.
The region is both the most populous and most densely populated region in the world. It is heavily rural, with agriculture being the mainstay of the economy. Demographic trends have been shaped by rapid urbanization and economic development in the region. As such, significant investments in infrastructure are required to keep up with these trends.
Investing in Asia
The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) are enabling efforts to tackle climate change all across the region through its programs, on multiple fronts:
Bangladesh: CIF’s Pilot Project for Climate Resilience (PPCR) is enabling Bangladesh’s sustainable development objectives as well as strengthening the security of food and fresh water supply, while building the resilience of coastal communities.
Cambodia: CIF’s Pilot Program for Climate Resilience is helping to build institutional capacity through incorporating climate resilience into development plans, while climate-proofing water-management systems, agriculture, and infrastructure. At the same time, its Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Economies Program is supporting wide-scale solar-energy development and a biomass power project. Cambodia has also developed a roadmap for the sustainable management of forest resources through CIF’s Forest Investment Program (FIP).
India: CIF’s Clean Technology Fund (CTF) investment plan is supporting the development of three gigawatts of new installed solar power capacity, including 800 megawatts of rooftop solar photovoltaics, which aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 million tons.
Indonesia: CIF’s Clean Technology Fund (CTF) is enabling Indonesia to advance geothermal development. Concessional financing is facilitating commercial lending that is expected to lead five geothermal projects — targeting to generate a total of 750 megawatts (MW) — to financial closure, thereby setting a benchmark for commercial bank lending. The aims of grants and low-cost financing under FIP are to develop and support community-based sustainable forest management.
Nepal: PPCR is supporting Nepal — the world’s fourth-most climate-threatened country — in tackling multiple threats, alongside significant investments under the Forest Investment Program and the Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries Program.
Vietnam: CTF’s concessional financing is helping to demonstrate the commercial viability of energy efficiency and renewable-energy investments, thereby creating an enabling environment for scaled-up private-sector investment and reducing greenhouse emissions. In Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, the same program is supporting enhancements to urban transport systems.
The Climate Situation
Asia is on the frontline of the climate crisis. It is a hotspot for extreme weather events, bearing the brunt of the world’s natural disasters that have impacted 1.6 billion people since 2000. Rising sea levels pose a grave threat to the Pacific’s coastal areas and the small island nations, many of which could disappear in the coming decades. Cities are also not immune to the effects of climate change: Jakarta and Manila, along with others, are sinking at record rates.
The region is expected to see hotter weather, longer monsoon seasons, and increased droughts. In particular, temperatures and droughts are intensifying across the mountain ranges of Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Nepal. Along the coastlines of Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka, rising sea levels, flash flooding, and cyclones have wreaked havoc with increasing frequency. One of the strongest on record is Cyclone Amphan in 2020, which displaced five million people. The Maldives is in danger of total submergence under the Indian Ocean.
These extreme heatwaves and droughts are projected to become more common, thereby threatening key industries and food security. And with the region also constituting the source of over half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, a transition to clean energy is now urgent in one of the most rapidly developing regions in the world.
The Benefits of Partnering with the Climate Investment Funds
CIF is a global leader in the delivery of climate finance for piloting and scaling cutting-edge climate solutions and innovations in low- and middle-income countries.
CIF’s investments have been helping countries to adapt to climate change and mitigate its impacts since 2008. Through a programmatic approach, CIF supports an inclusive and just climate-smart future by focusing on diverse partnerships that de-risk green markets and unlock additional investments and financing.
To date, 15 contributor countries have pledged over $10 billion to CIF. This is expected to mobilize an additional $62 billion in co-financing for 73 recipient countries.
CIF’s funding enables and scales up transformational climate action. This includes funding for policy and regulatory reforms and local capacity building to create the enabling environment for lasting change in partner countries. The funding specifically supports low- and middle-income countries in transitioning to clean energy; adapting and building resilience to climate change; protecting and managing nature; growing cities sustainably; and decarbonizing industries.
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2025 CIF Youth Fellowship
Nov 05, 2024
