Global Environment Facility holds first meeting for its 8th replenishment

 

Member governments and partners of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) met today – Earth Day – to formally start discussions about its eighth replenishment cycle, signaling ambitious plans and priorities at a critical time for the health of people and planet.

 

The meetings brought together representatives of donor and recipient countries, civil society, and observers from the wider GEF community, including partner agencies, environmental conventions, the private sector, and international climate funds, for substantive conversations about how the GEF can scale up action on inter-related threats including climate change, biodiversity loss, chemical pollution, and pressure on forests, oceans, and landscapes.

 

The GEF-8 investment period, which will span from July 2022 to June 2026, aligns with a crucial time for the world to recover sustainably from the COVID-19 pandemic, tackle the root causes of challenges to nature and human health, and make large strides toward the 2030 international environmental goals.

 

“We have high ambitions for the coming decade and plans to achieve them,” GEF CEO and Chairperson Carlos Manuel Rodriguez told the session, held virtually because of the ongoing global pandemic.

 

Rodriguez, a former Costa Rican environment and energy minister, noted and welcomed the growing political aspirations of governments – including the developing countries eligible for GEF grant funding and blended finance – to turn the tide on environmental degradation and invest in nature’s renewal, in support of a COVID-19 recovery that is green, blue, clean, and resilient.