Bangladesh among five countries selected for climate funds

Bangladesh has been selected as one of five countries for the first phase of a new climate resilience investment programme of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), aimed at scaling up climate adaptation projects and mobilising financing.

The other selected countries are Haiti, Kyrgyz Republic, Morocco and Sierra Leone. A regional programme involving Malawi and Mozambique has also been selected, according to a CIF press release issued on Thursday.

Under the Accelerating Resilience Investments and Innovations for Sustainable Economies (ARISE) programme, each selected country can prepare an investment plan seeking up to $30 million in financing, while the Malawi-Mozambique regional programme can seek up to $40 million.

The selection followed a process that identified 25 expressions of interest representing more than $700 million in potential investment opportunities across several sectors.

These include agriculture and food systems, water security, infrastructure, energy, coastal resilience, blue economies, natural resources, financial services and adaptive social protection.

The selected countries will work with their respective multilateral development bank (MDB) partners to prepare investment plans for the programme.

Launched at COP30 last year, ARISE initially received more than $100 million in funding commitments from Germany, Spain and Ireland to support a new generation of climate resilience investments.

The United Kingdom has recently confirmed additional funding of up to $128 million over the coming years through reflows from CIF's existing resilience programme.

The programme aims to use concessional financing strategically to attract larger flows of public and private investment, strengthen climate-vulnerable sectors, protect livelihoods and support long-term economic growth.