In May 2008 a group of donors meeting in Germany proposed the establishment of two climate investment funds: the green technology fund and the strategic climate fund. This short brief considers how countries are able to access these funds and the involvement of corporate funding within this mechanism. The authors highlight that new and additional financial resources remain central to the commitment of the parties under Article 4 of the Convention. This resource is to cover ‘agreed incremental costs’, including costs of technology transfer on the developing country parties. Therefore the paper argues that the architecture of the climate investment funds of the World Bank is vastly “top-down’, which disregards adequate participation of developing countries, need of accountability mechanisms, and promotion of environmental and development benefits. As mitigation of climate crisis is a global concern so it is vital that all these proposals are opened up to wider ownership and engagement from civil society and developing countries at this critical proposal stage and to get their views as to the desirability and design of such initiatives. Otherwise, the authors conclude that this initiative would erode the trust of the developing countries.