Scoop: US makes priorities known at Global Environment Facility talks

A representative of the United States Treasury Department participated in a meeting to structure the ninth replenishment of the Global Environment Facility, or GEF, despite the U.S. government shutdown, an anonymous source with inside information of the meetings told Devex, adding that the chance of continued contributions from the U.S. sounded “positive but not certain.”

GEF is one of the world’s main multilateral funds for environmental protection and sustainable development. It is a coalition of 186 member countries, as well as international institutions, civil society organizations, and the private sector.

Hillary Clifford, an international economist in the U.S. Treasury Department, told GEF members that the U.S. does not want to increase the amount it pays toward climate change in GEF, but instead focus on biodiversity, plastics, illegal fisheries, and Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, or BBNJ, which refers to marine life and ocean ecosystems that span multiple countries, according to the source.