In June, just a few months into the global pandemic, the Global Environment Facility agreed to allocate $700 million for projects and programs to help low- and middle-income countries continue advancing urgent environmental priorities through, and beyond, the COVID-19 crisis.
Meeting online on June 2, GEF’s governing body agreed that the new and expanded programming under the replenishment cycle would include oceans, land use, wildlife trafficking, climate change adaptation, and helping vulnerable countries and communities to build climate resilience. The facility — an international partnership of 184 member countries, plus international institutions, civil society organizations, and the private sector — also outlined plans to mobilize $3 billion in co-financing from other sources that would directly benefit 12 million local people.
Since 1992, GEF has been addressing global environmental issues, providing funding to assist LMICs in meeting international environmental objectives, and serving as a financial mechanism for environment conventions and partners with 18 institutions that act as GEF agencies — including United Nations agencies, multilateral banks such as the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank, and other organizations including the World Wide Fund for Nature or Conservation International, among others.