GEF will consider projects that protect biodiversity, counter climate change and pollution, and support land and ocean health over four-day meeting
An amount of $736.4 million will be allocated towards environment protection at the Global Environment Facility (GEF) council meeting being convened in Washington, DC, starting June 17, 2024.
Over the four-day meeting, the GEF will consider projects that protect biodiversity, counter climate change and pollution, and support land and ocean health.
The councils of the GEF Trust Fund, Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), and Least Developed Countries Fund and Special Climate Change Fund (LDCF/SCCF) will consider $495.6 million, $37.8 million and $203 million respectively.
“We are committed to working in an integrated, inclusive way to deliver lasting impact across all six multilateral environmental conventions we serve, and in all developing countries where the GEF is supporting action with strategic funding,” said Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, chief executive and chairperson of the GEF.
The GEF Trust Fund will take decisions on projects under the GEF-8 funding cycle running from July 2022 to June 2026. In June 2022, 29 donor governments had pledged $5.33 billion to GEF in support of international efforts to meet nature and climate targets.
Many of these projects also contribute to global biodiversity targets set under the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Biodiversity Plan adopted in December 2022.
These include the work on 28 million hectares of land and marine areas in the Sahel region and Yemen. Initiatives include land restoration through the Great Green Wall project in Africa and the improved management and conservation of wetlands in Yemen’s Socotra archipelago and Aden wetlands, and an initiative to conserve terrestrial and marine biodiversity in vulnerable sites in Somalia.
GEF Trust Fund supports the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Minamata Convention on Mercury. It plans to support projects to reduce persistent organic pollutants in the air and reduce the generation of e-waste.
For GBFF, launched in August 2023 at the Seventh GEF Assembly in Vancouver and approved by 186 countries, this is the inaugural work program and it is set to fund conservation initiatives in Brazil and Mexico. GBFF aims to help countries achieve the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It has received funds from Canada, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Its first three projects include one initiative in Mexico and two in Brazil. These will provide financial support to work on protected areas with indigenous people-led conservation. In total, these initiatives would support 30.5 million hectares of terrestrial and marine protected areas, and directly benefit 229,000 people.
Council members will also meet as the LDCF and SCCF governing body, considering $203 million in funding for 14 climate adaptation initiatives. The LDCF work program will support projects related to climate resilience and adaptation in Angola, Cambodia, Chad, the Comoros, the Gambia, Guinea, Lao PDR, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Tanzania.
Though the Council customarily meets twice each year, it will meet three times in 2024. The June meeting is the second time the members are getting together.
The Council develops, adopts, and evaluates the operational policies and programs for GEF-financed activities. It also reviews and approves the work program (projects submitted for approval), making decisions by consensus.
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