Major developed countries pledged a total of more than $6.1 billion to a pair of global investment funds to back developing nations' efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The pledges were made on Saturday at a donors' meeting in Washington of 10 nations backing the Climate Investment Funds. The nations constitutes of US, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
"These funds are a concrete step forward toward reconciling the challenge of global climate change with the challenge of development and overcoming poverty," said World Bank President Robert Zoellick in a statement.
"We hope it is only the beginning, and that other nations will also contribute to enable even more financing for climate action," he said.
The two funds -- the Clean Technology Fund and the Strategic Climate Fund -- led by United States, Britain and Japan, earlier this year had pledged USD 1.5 billion and USD 1.2 billion respectively.
The Clean Technology Fund is meant to serve emerging economies that have sharply increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to promote energy efficiency in power generation, transportation and other areas.
The Strategic Climate Fund is intended for the needs of African countries and island nations, which are vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
{{/usCountry}}The Strategic Climate Fund is intended for the needs of African countries and island nations, which are vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
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