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WASHINGTON (GEF) – Global Environment Facility member countries have approved $736.4 million in funding, including new support for the Great Green Wall, a landmark initiative to increase climate resilience and improve land health in Africa’s Sahel region.
This diverse financing package includes the first three projects approved by the new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund less than a year after its establishment, and the largest amount of support to date for climate change adaptation from the Least Developed Countries Fund.
Other highlights include a new integrated Sustainable Cities Programme and support for innovative Coral Bonds, which build on the successful Rhino Bond issued in 2022 with support from GEF blended finance.
The Global Environment Facility’s governing body has approved more than $700 million for nature conservation and restoration projects, including large-scale initiatives to support the “Great Green Wall” and invest in sustainable cities, clean industries, improved ocean and land health, and enhanced resilience to climate change.
The GEF Trust Fund, the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), and the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) are all part of the GEF Fund family, and their funding reflects the GEF’s commitment to provide grants quickly and effectively to developing countries whose actions to address environmental challenges are critical to achieving this decade’s global goals on biodiversity, climate change, and pollution.
The support package includes nearly $500 million from the GEF Trust Fund to support 25 projects and programs, including the new Global Sustainable Cities Integrated Program, and multiple efforts to address chemicals and waste challenges, including in Bolivia’s cement, textile, brick, and glass sectors, Brazil’s cement sector, and the global electronics industry. The package also includes support for Indonesia’s new coral bond, linking private capital to pressing conservation needs, building on the successful Wildlife Conservation Bond, or “Rhino Bond,” issued by the World Bank in 2022 with GEF financing.
Focusing on climate change adaptation, Board members approved a record $203 million in LDCF funding for initiatives in 20 LDCs, including co-financing with the GEF Great Green Wall Trust Fund. LDCF assistance will help build resilience to floods and droughts in Laos and Cambodia; develop climate-resilient transport infrastructure in Sao Tome and Principe; support youth- and women-led green businesses in Chad; improve food security in Sierra Leone; and address other urgent needs.
The GBFF Board approved the new fund’s first work program, allocating $37.8 million for protected area management in Brazil and Mexico. This comes less than a year after the fund to support implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework was launched at the Seventh GEF Assembly in Vancouver, Canada. The three projects funded by the GBFF aim to improve the sustainability of more than 30 million hectares of protected areas on land and sea through long-term financing and support for indigenous-led conservation efforts.
GEF CEO and Chair Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, who was reappointed for a second four-year term at the GEF Board of Governors meeting in Washington, D.C., said the large and diverse support program reflects countries’ recognition of the GEF Fund family’s unique ability to link challenges together through integrated programs and thematic programming.
“We need maximum ambition, maximum speed and maximum cooperation,” Rodriguez said. “The only way we can address the complex environmental threats before us is with a unified, integrated and coordinated approach. As we hear calls for multiple additional financial mechanisms, I firmly believe that we need to unite, not further divide.”
The members of the Security Council also heard from heads of multilateral environmental conventions on the need for rapid, collaborative and joint action to achieve international goals, looking ahead to the three Conferences of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Climate Change and Desertification to be held at the end of the year. The 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity will be held in Colombia in October; the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held in Azerbaijan in November; and the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification will be held in Saudi Arabia in December.
Rolf Payette, Executive Secretary of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, stressed the importance of prioritizing action to address pollution, including phasing out hazardous chemicals that could cause long-term environmental damage and widespread impacts.
“Failure to meet the 2030 target will lead to continued contamination of ecosystems, adversely affecting the health of our species and wildlife, and making it more difficult to achieve broader environmental and public health goals,” Payette said.
That sense of urgency was echoed by Minamata Convention Executive Secretary Monika Stankiewicz, who noted that cleaning up industrial processes and improving waste management are key to reducing overall environmental risks and achieving the global biodiversity framework as well as carbon emissions and land health targets.
“The need is huge,” she said.
The GEF Council will hold its next meeting in December 2024, when countries will begin discussions on the ninth replenishment of the Trust Fund. The four-year ninth replenishment cycle of the GEF will run from 2026 to 2030, a period that coincides with the final sprint to achieve the 2030 global environmental goals, including the “30×30” target.
“We are at a critical moment for our planet. We need to rise to the challenge and assess what we have, where we need to go and how to get there,” Rodriguez said.
“The GEF partnership needs to be bigger, bolder and better. Our ambition needs to be bigger. Our action needs to be bolder. Our delivery needs to be better and our impact needs to be greater. That is the spirit in which I want us to go into the GEF-9 replenishment negotiations,” he said… PACNEWS
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