As Barack Obama announces plans for American and NATO troop increases in Afghanistan on Tuesday, neighboring Pakistan has become the target of a massive influx of funds to stimulate the country's clean energy economy.

$660 million will be delivered to Pakistani government and private agencies over the next several years by an international coalition of aid funding bodies.

The international development banks promising money to Pakistan include USAID, Germany's GTZ, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Investment Bank. The Pakistan plan is the first cooperative funding venture between the EIB and ADB, and the local regional bank is ponying up much more than the Europeans...

The Asian Development Bank has committed $510 million to Pakistan's renewable energy rollout, while the EIB's 100 million euros (about $150.8 million) is part of an Asia/Latin America fund for climate change mitigation. In that fund, just over a quarter is available for Asia, with the rest destined for the southern part of the Western Hemisphere.

Whatever the funding levels, it's clear that Pakistan is seen as a strategically important piece of the global clean energy puzzle, with funding bodies from all over the world swooping in to stimulate the local industry.

-Sam Hopkins