Devex Newswire: Once-obscure nature fund now racks up billions

The Global Environment Facility tends to fly under the radar, but that could change as it reaps the rewards of a funding replenishment boom. Also in today’s edition: We go inside the Africa Climate Summit to hear the gripes, promises, and hopes of the myriad players. + Join us tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET (4 p.m. CET) for the final part of our Globaldev Consulting Skills series and get expert insights on the pros, cons, and everything in between in the world of development consulting. Can’t attend live? Register anyway, and we’ll send you a recording. Nature of the game Nature — specifically, preserving it — is drawing in big development dollars. Since 1991, the Global Environment Facility, or GEF, has financed more than $22 billion across the global south, a sum larger than what the better-known but beleaguered Green Climate Fund has mustered for climate action. GEF specializes in environmental projects that cover biodiversity, climate change, chemicals and waste, land degradation, and international waters. It’s been relatively obscure until recently, when its profile skyrocketed thanks to the landmark COP 15 biodiversity summit agreement inked last December in Montreal, Canada. The framework includes the so-called 30x30 pledge to conserve 30% of the world’s lands and waters by 2030. In conservation circles, the pact is hailed as akin to a Paris agreement for nature, writes Gregory Scruggs for Devex. GEF operates in four-year funding cycles, the most recent of which was approved in 2022 for a record $5.33 billion, the largest in the fund’s history. Gregory writes a detailed, essential primer on how to apply for that money, which could go toward initiatives that range from preserving forest biomes in the Amazon and Congo Basin, to halting wildlife poaching, to developing alternatives to disposable single-use plastics. Read more: How to tap the Global Environment Facility's billions (Pro) + Not a Devex Pro member yet? Start your 15-day free trial of Pro today to unlock the article and all our exclusive reporting and analysis. No excellency here Meanwhile, climate has naturally — no pun intended — taken center stage at Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, where our contributing reporter David Njagi is on the ground. Also in attendance: Lots of bigwigs with fancy titles (I’m sure there’s no shortage among the 20,000 delegates who’ve descended on the Kenyan capital for the event). But U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres apparently does not like being addressed by the traditional “your excellency” moniker — at least that’s what David learned when Guterres was responding to Devex’s question about the global north-south imbalance during a press conference. Though he has vowed to use his sway as secretary-general, an impressive title in and of itself, to advocate for an African permanent seat at the U.N. Security Council, a long-cherished aim of African leaders. From the ASEAN Summit in Indonesia to the G20 meeting in India to the G77 meeting in Cuba, the U.N. chief insisted he’s pushing for deep reforms to make the global multilateral architecture more responsive to the needs of low- and middle-income countries, particularly those in Africa. “Global institutions need to step up, guarantee African representation, respond to African needs and potential, from international financial institutions to the U.N. Security Council where Africa lacks a permanent seat,” says Guterres. ICYMI: Thousands meet in Nairobi for the first Africa Climate Summit Lack of specifics One of the rare areas of cooperation left between the United States and China that’s often mentioned is climate change, but can the two giants bridge the wide gulf of differences between them to come together at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in November? U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry was reticent to offer any predictions at the the Africa Climate Summit. He noted that conversations between the two countries on climate change were suspended for a period of time last year and pointed out that China is complicated — a diplomatic understatement if we ever heard one. On the one hand, the nation of 1.4 billion people is deploying more renewables than the rest of the world. On the other, it’s responsible for massive amounts of emissions from coal-fired plants, which it continues to build. Kerry, however, told reporters that the U.S. is still looking for places the two countries are likely to cooperate — but not at any price. “It is cooperation in ways that we can make impact together,” he said, adding that climate change is not a bilateral issue but rather a universal threat to the planet. “I hope we can come together because I think it will be important for winning this battle, which we need to do,” said Kerry as he announced new climate funding to support African countries. Speaking of cooperation … As much as new climate funding is sorely welcome, so is local coordination, as opposed to a top-down approach reminiscent of colonial strictures. But a concerning new report claims that when it comes to community conservation, decisions made by international NGOs are not getting input from local organizations. “There is a troubling imbalance of power between local and international organizations,” says Resson Kantai Duff of Maliasili, the global conservation nonprofit that authored the report. Experts say projects such as carbon offsetting initiatives give minimal profits to communities involved and minimal credit when projects are successful. “When you look at the landscape across Africa, a lot of organizations are profiting off communities instead of having projects that benefit both nature as well as people on the ground,” says Ademola Ajagbe of The Nature Conservancy. Read: The nonprofit power struggle at the heart of conservation Rule-breaking doesn’t pay The United Kingdom’s use of official development assistance, or ODA, to house asylum-seekers inside the country appears to have backfired — and it could mean a £2.68 billion ($3.37 billion) windfall for the rest of the world. That’s how much could be diverted back to U.K. aid programs because the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development — which legislates ODA rules — has blocked the government from counting domestic accommodation bills as foreign aid. The blockade came after London adopted a new law banning asylum claims by anyone arriving without permission. The Independent Commission for Aid Impact has confirmed the restriction, as our U.K. Correspondent Rob Merrick previously revealed. Sarah Champion, chair of the U.K. Parliament’s International Development Committee, says: “We warned the government to get its hands off ODA that’s clearly intended to support the poorest in the world in their home countries. “Spending in this manner was against the spirit of the ODA rules and now it seems, with the Illegal Migration Act, the government has made its policy in breach of those same rules.” The U.K. government has declined to say whether it accepts the looming restriction — even though, behind the scenes, three departments are battling over who will foot the bill, Rob was told. Read: UK’s crackdown on refugee rights could release over £2.6B in ODA + Catch up on our coverage of the latest news and analysis on the U.K. aid sector. In other news The Central African Republic is facing a humanitarian crisis with 2.4 million people in dire need of assistance, and yet the U.N.’s appeal for $534 million is only 36% funded. [AP News] A UNICEF report revealed that an unprecedented number of children from Latin America and the Caribbean are leaving their homes due to the compounding factors of gang violence, poverty, instability, and climate change. [CNN] Venezuela topped the list of countries owing the U.N. millions in back dues, followed by Somalia, Comoros, and Sao Tome and Principe, which raises the risk of losing their voting rights on resolutions. [VOA] Sign up to Newswire for an inside look at the biggest stories in global development.