GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY
Source: Down to Earth
Context
The Global Environment has promised to Provide $5.33 billion over the next four years to address problems related to biodiversity worldwide.
It was announced at an information session of the ongoing preparatory meeting on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework meeting in Nairobi.
Key points
- It is the only multilateral fund focused on biodiversity.
- The amount is 30 per cent more than in the last four years.
- Biodiversity would be the focus area during these years and at least 60 per cent of the commitments will be related to biodiversity.
- It plans to provide the funds to improve food systems, ecosystem restoration, ensure clean and healthy oceans, climate change mitigation and manage chemicals and waste among other things.
- The plan is to provide $1 million per country for in-country work and $9 million for global technical assistance.
- This would help meet goals. But it is much less than the requirement estimated by Campaign for Nature, a non-profit.
- At least one per cent of global gross domestic product is needed each year to deal with the biodiversity crisis.
- The organisation estimates the requirement to be at least $60 billion each year.
| Earlier, a group of countries including Argentina and Brazil and Gabon called for developed countries to provide at least $ 100 billion a year, rising to $700 billion per year by 2030. |
Biodiversity woes
- The world failed to meet the Aichi targets on biodiversity set for 2011-2020, due to a lack of adequate financial resources.
- In 2020, an assessment showed that none of the 20 Aichi targets had been met.
- Campaign for Nature asked developed countries to provide funds in the form of grants and not debt and also ensure that indigenous people and local communities had direct access to these resources.
- This is important in light of the recent developments from Tanzania's Maasai Community are being forcefully throughout from their ancestral land to make way for a luxury game reserve for the rich.
- Investing in the environment is important considering that money spent now can help avoid massive future costs that come from the degradation of nature as well as Zoonotic diseases and pandemics that can be caused due to the loss of nature.
- There is also a need to eliminate subsidies that are harmful to nature. These include subsidies on fishing or the promotion of fossil fuels.
- The Nairobi meeting is being held in preparation for the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CoP15), Scheduled for later this year in Montreal, Canada.
Global Environment Facility (GEF)
- It was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
- It is a change for action on the environment and much more.
- In strategic investments, the GEF works with partners to tackle the plant's biggest environmental issues.
- It is a unique partnership of 18 agencies including United Nations agencies, Multilateral development banks, National entities and international NGOs working with 183countries to address the world's most challenging environmental issues.
- It has a large network of civil society organisations, works closely with the private sector around the world and receives continuous inputs from an independent evaluation office and a world-class scientific panel.
Financial Mechanism
It is a Financial Mechanism for five major international environmental conventions.
- The Minamata Convention on Mercury
- The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
- The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD)
- The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and
- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
It is also an Innovator and Catalyst that supports multi-stakeholder alliances to preserve threatened ecosystems on land and in the oceans, build greener cities, boost food security and promote clean energy for a more prosperous, climate-resilient world.
Leveraging $5.2 in additional financing for every $1 invested.
Trust Fund
- The GEF Trust Fund was established to help tackle our planet's most pressing environmental problems.
- Funds are available to developing countries and countries with economies in transition to meet the objectives of the international environmental conventions and agreements.
