$736.4 million to be disbursed at 67th Global Environment Facility board meeting in Washington

An amount of $736.4 million will be allocated for environmental protection at the Global Environment Facility (GEF) board meeting to be held in Washington, DC, starting June 17, 2024.

During the four-day meeting, the GEF will consider projects that protect biodiversity, combat climate change and pollution, and support healthy land and oceans.

The boards of the GEF Trust Fund, the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), the Least Developed Countries Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund (LDCF/SCCF) will review $495.6 million, respectively, $37.8 million and $203 million.

“We are committed to working in an integrated and inclusive way to make a lasting impact in the six multilateral environmental conventions we serve, and in all developing countries where the GEF supports action with strategic financing,” said Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, general manager and president. of the GEF.

The GEF Trust Fund will make decisions on projects in the GEF-8 funding cycle from July 2022 to June 2026. As of June 2022, 29 donor governments have pledged $5.33 billion to the GEF to support international efforts aimed at to achieve nature and climate objectives.

Many of these projects also contribute to global biodiversity targets set under the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Biodiversity Plan adopted in December 2022.

This includes 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 improving the management and conservation of wetlands in Yemen’s Socotra Archipelago and Aden wetlands, as well as an initiative aimed at conserving terrestrial and marine biodiversity in vulnerable sites in Somalia.

The 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 production of electronic waste.

For the GBFF, launched in August 2023 at the Seventh GEF Assembly in Vancouver and endorsed by 186 countries, this is the inaugural work program and is expected to fund conservation initiatives in Brazil and Mexico. The GBFF aims to help countries achieve the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It has received funding from Canada, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Its first three projects include an initiative in Mexico and two in Brazil. These will provide financial support to work on protected areas with indigenous-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 governing body of the LDCF and SCCF, considering $203 million in funding for 14 climate adaptation initiatives. The LDC Fund work program will support projects related to resilience and adaptation to climate change in Angola, Cambodia, Chad, Comoros, Gambia, Guinea, Lao PDR, Sao Tome- and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Tanzania.

Although the Council usually meets twice a year, it will meet three times in 2024. The June meeting is the second time the members have met.

The Council develops, adopts and evaluates operational policies and programs for activities financed by the GEF. It also reviews and approves the work program (projects submitted for approval), making decisions by consensus.