The years 2008 and 2009 saw the establishment of the Clean Investments Funds (CIFs) - committing an overall USD 6.7 billion of which USD 4.7 billion is for climate change mitigation. The UNFCCC and other institutions such as the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) are still providing channels for public and private sector investments towards climate change mitigation. On several occasions in interviews, investors expressed the idea that the IEA should play a bigger role in disseminating the information. One professor at the Energy Research Institute in Beijing emphasised that "experts, training and capacity building are needed in China."