Climate Policy Initiative Establishes Project to Study Climate Finance Effectiveness and Productivity

VENICE, Italy, October 14, 2010 - Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), a global research organization focused
on the effectiveness of energy and climate policy and programs, today
announced the establishment of the CPI Climate Finance Project, based in
Venice. The project's goal is to provide research on climate finance to
policymakers and the private sector, to help them make the best decisions in
support of low-carbon growth.

Specifically, the project will:

    - establish a platform for comprehensive tracking of international
      climate finance;
    - analyze the effectiveness of climate finance; and
    - develop a methodology/evaluation framework to assess the productivity
      of climate finance.

"Policymakers understand that adequate and effective finance is necessary
for low-carbon growth," said Barbara Buchner, CPI Venice director and project
chair. "But they want to better understand the current mix of finance, what
works and what doesn't, and how to maximize productivity and transparency of
financial flows. The CPI Climate Finance Project will engage the private and
public sectors in addressing these questions."

To launch the project, CPI today co-hosted a workshop in Venice with the
International Center of Climate Governance (ICCG), in collaboration with the
Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change (CMCC). Participants included
experts in climate finance from the public and private sectors as well as
NGOs and academia. The workshop focused on 1) defining methods to calculate
finance flows, 2) ways to evaluate the effectiveness of cross-national
finance flows, and 3) how to reduce the risk of investing in climate finance.
CPI will publish a summary of the workshop in November.

About CPI

Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), www.climatepolicyinitiative.org,
is a global research organization whose mission is to assess, diagnose and
support nations' efforts to achieve low-carbon growth. CPI research focuses
on the effectiveness of national policies and programs, helping public and
private decision-makers make the best decisions for low-carbon growth. An
independent, not-for-profit research organization with long-term support from
the Fund for Policy Reform, part of George Soros' network of foundations, CPI
is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Berlin, Beijing and
Venice.

Ruby Barcklay of Climate Policy Initiative, +1-415-230-0799 (O), +1-510-612-5180 (M), or ruby at cpisf.org