The world’s largest public environmental fund, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), received a record boost from donor countries this week with more than 30 nations pledging US$4.25 billion.
GEF said the funding is the first significant multilateral step toward the commitments made in Copenhagen on climate change.
GEF serves as a financial mechanism through which countries can meet obligations under several international agreements, including the Climate Change Convention, the Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Desertification and Ozone Conventions and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
“This replenishment is the first tangible confirmation of the financial commitments made in Copenhagen last December, including some of the Fast-Start Financing, in particular, through the creation of a new initiative inside the GEF linked to sustainable forest management-REDD Plus,” explained Monique Barbut, CEO of the GEF Secretariat and Co-Chair. Approximately $1.35 billion will be programmed for the climate change focal area.
The US$4.25 billion pledged for the next four years is the largest ever increase in funding (52%) for the GEF.
The GEF will channel these new resources toward six environmental focal areas: climate change, biodiversity, international waters, land degradation, persistent organic pollutants, mercury and the ozone layer.
The GEF also intends to implement a package of policy and operational reforms to give recipient countries greater ownership in funding choices.
The GEF has been replenished four times since its inception in 1991: $2.02 billion in 1994, $2.75 billion in 1998, $2.92 billion in 2002, and $3.13 billion in 2006.
The GEF unites 181 countries in partnership with international institutions, civil society, and the private sector to address global environmental issues in the context of national sustainable development. Both developed and developing countries participate in the GEF’s governing structure.
GEF funding is channeled to recipient countries through a variety agencies, including multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank, and UN agencies.
To date, the GEF has provided $8.7 billion in grants for more than 2,400 environmental projects in over 165 developing countries and emerging economies.
