In a special session Bill Clinton, Former US President and UN Special Envoy to Haiti, made a robust call for immediate aid and sustained investment to assist Haiti as it struggles to build a new and prosperous nation out of the rubble of the devastating earthquake of 12 January.

In partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative and the United Nations, the World Economic Forum will work to increase private sector involvement in Haiti for the long term. “We are reminded of the common humanity which we all share,” said Forum Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab.

At its 40th Annual Meeting, the Forum established a special booth to coordinate private sector investment in Haiti. Over 2,500 business, government and civil society leaders are participating in the Meeting in Davos.

Watch the session.

Funding the future clean economy was another topic on the Davos agenda. In a report release today, Green Investing 2010: Policy Mechanisms to Bridge the Financing Gap, the Forum revealed that investment in clean energy has held up better than expected during the financial crisis and resulting recession, but a considerable gap still exists between current levels of investment and what is needed to begin reducing the world’s carbon emissions.

The report’s authors, Anuradha Gurung and Max von Bismarck from the World Economic Forum, and Chris Greenwood and Michael Liebreich from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, state that “as a result of the continued financing gap, there is an urgent need for policy-makers around the world to implement measures at the regional, national and sub-national level, which will encourage investment in clean energy technology and projects. With this in mind, the report provides policy-makers with a toolkit consisting of 35 different policy mechanisms, which can be used to promote various clean energy sectors. The mechanisms can be chosen based on stage of technological development – R&D/proof of concept, demonstration and scale-up, commercial roll-out, diffusion and maturity – and also on stage of economic development.”

Policy mechanisms have to be tailored in the national, state and local context. Mechanisms for a financially viable shift to a low-carbon economy range from the establishment of national laboratories or research centres; requiring public entities to procure clean energy or use emerging efficient technologies; programmes designed to reduce the cost of private lending and improve project economics; and microfinance.