◇ GEF Council
The Global Environment Facility’s governing body has approved more than $700 million for nature protection and renewal projects, including support for the Great Green Wall and investment in large-scale initiatives for sustainable cities, cleaner industries, improved ocean and land health, and greater climate change resilience.
The funding from the GEF Trust Fund, Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), and Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), which together are part of the GEF family of funds, reflects a commitment to quickly and efficiently deploy grants to developing countries whose action on environmental challenges is key to meeting global goals for biodiversity, climate change, and pollution this decade.
The package of support includes nearly $500 million from the GEF Trust Fund for 25 projects and programs, among them 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, in Brazil’s cement industry, and in electronics globally.
It also includes support for a new Indonesia Coral Bond that will connect private capital with urgent conservation needs, building on the successful Wildlife Conservation Bond, or “rhino bond,” issued by the World Bank in 2022 with GEF financial support.
Focusing on climate change adaption, Council members approved a record $203 million from the LDCF for initiatives across 20 Least Developed Countries, including joint financing with the GEF Trust Fund for the Great Green Wall.
The LDCF support will propel efforts to enhance resilience to flooding and drought in Laos and Cambodia; to develop climate-resilient transport infrastructure in Sao Tome and Principe; to support youth- and women-led green enterprises in Chad; to improve food security in Sierra Leone; and to address other urgent needs.
The GBFF Council approved the new fund’s very first work program, allocating $37.8 million for protected area management in Brazil and Mexico.
This came less than one year after the fund supporting implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework was launched at the Seventh GEF Assembly in Vancouver, Canada.
The three GBFF-funded projects are set to improve the sustainability of more than 30 million hectares of protected areas on land and at sea, with long-term financing and support for Indigenous-led conservation.
Source: GEF