GEF will provide US$3 billion Climate Change financing
Innovative integrated programs will focus on cities and commodity supply chains to address drivers of environmental degradation;
Catalyzing climate finance to protect global commons and increase resilience
NEW YORK, NY – The Global Environment Facility (GEF) will support developing countries with over US$3 billion for financing actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change over the next four years.
The newly completed Sixth Replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund, together with expected funding from its climate adaptation funds, will enable the GEF to make US$3 billion available for climate finance in the next four years, with an expected US$30 billion being leveraged from other sources.
“We urgently need strong action on climate change” said Ms. Ishii. “The GEF is proactively seeking to produce the maximum impact from our investments, working together with other stakeholders to achieve the change that the world needs”.
The GEF supports climate change initiatives in countries across a broad spectrum of action areas. A total of US$910 million has been allocated to individual countries to support national climate change mitigation policies and strategies, enhance renewable energy supply, increase energy efficiency, including sustainable transport and urban design, expand climate smart agriculture, and work to reduce short-lived climate forcers. The GEF has also allocated US$225 million to support UNFCCC-related reporting and assessments, including Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, and to help integrate their findings into national policy planning and implementation.
In addition, as leading global financier of climate change adaptation, the GEF expects to program up to US$1.2 billion towards enhanced resilience, adaptation and disaster risk reduction. The GEF has already transferred US$314 million to 53 countries to strengthen the hydro-meteorological and climate information services, allowing governments, private enterprises, civil society and individuals to integrate climate change risks and adaptation into their decision-making processes. The GEF and its partners are also preparing regional programs that will deploy ecosystem-based adaptation measures to enhance resilience in cities in at least nine countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Asia-Pacific region.
In an effort to pilot innovative approaches, in the next four years the GEF will provide dedicated financing for three high-impact integrated programs. Through the Sustainable Cities program US$ 100 million will be dedicated to help mayors and other municipal leaders make cities more sustainable, cleaner, more efficient, resilient, and prosperous, generating global environmental benefits through local action.
“There is no better entry point to address the world’s major drivers of environmental degradation than cities and urbanization”, said Ms. Ishii. “With this program we aim to create a global platform that can support Mayors and city managers to develop and execute integrated plans that help lower cities’ environmental foot print and increase their resilience. Importantly, the program will also facilitate learning and sharing of effective solutions among cities around the world.”
Ms. Ishii also noted two other new GEF programs, including US$110 million to improve food security, strengthen resilience and enhance carbon sequestration in Sub-Saharan Africa, and US$45 million to eliminate deforestation from commodity supply chains by harnessing the growing public and private sector interest in adopting more sustainable practices to produce commodities such as palm oil, soy and beef.
The GEF is committed to helping transform policy, strengthening institutional capacity, building multi-stakeholder alliances, and de-risking partner investments, as well as exploring synergies across its many lines of climate-related financing. The GEF will continue to play a key role in demonstrating innovative approaches and instruments that can be scaled up by other players, including the Green Climate Fund as it becomes operational, moving towards a constructive negotiations outcome in 2015.
Media contact: Ms. Patrizia Cocca, GEF Communications Officer, +1 202 664 4049, pcocca@thegef.org
***
About the Global Environment Facility
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a partnership for international cooperation where 183 countries work together with international institutions, civil society organizations and the private sector, to address global environmental issues.
Since 1991, the GEF has provided US$12.5 billion in grants and leveraged US$58 billion in co-financing for 3,690 projects in 165 developing countries. For 23 years, developed and developing countries alike have provided these funds to support activities related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, and chemicals and waste in the context of development projects and programs. Through its Small Grants Programme (SGP) the GEF has made more than 20,000 grants to civil society and community based organizations for a total of US$1 billion.
Among the major results of these investments, the GEF has set up protected areas around the world equal roughly to the area of Brazil; reduced carbon emissions by 2.3 billion tons; eliminated the use of ozone depleting substances in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia; transformed the management of 33 major river basins and one-third of the world’s large marine ecosystems; slowed the advance of desertification in Africa by improving agricultural practices—and all this while contributing to better the livelihood and food security of millions of people.
During the latest replenishment of the GEF (GEF-6) 30 donor countries have pledged the record amount of US$4.43 billion to support developing countries’ efforts over the next four years to prevent degradation of the global environment.
Stay Connected
- www.facebook.com/thegef1
- www.twitter.com/theGEF
- www.youtube.com/GEFSecretariat
- www.flickr.com/theGEF
- www.thegef.org/gef/gefrss
- www.issuu.com/thegef
- www.linkedin.com/company/
global-environment-facility
