More than 400 scientists brainstorm on GEF investment priorities

For its first 30 years, the Global Environment Facility has worked on all environmental fronts to support a productive, resilient planet that benefits human health and well-being. Over the decade to come, these efforts will also include a high-ambition drive to underwrite a clean, resilient, green, and blue recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

Making that recovery stick and endure is among the ambitious goals of the multilateral trust fund’s next four-year investment cycle, known as GEF-8, which runs from 2022 to 2026, and will also shape the next one, GEF-9, leading to 2030.

To lay the groundwork for these new phases of action with clear, science-based objectives, GEF Chairman and CEO Carlos Manuel Rodriguez convened a group of more than 400 leading scientists and environmental experts from Feb. 8-11 to share their perspectives on the top priorities and opportunities to seize at a critical moment.

“There is no doubt to me that the COVID-19 recovery is a once in a lifetime opportunity to achieve breakthroughs in how we manage forests, the land, the water, the ocean, how we produce and consume, and even how we live,” Rodriguez told the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meeting, which was held over Zoom because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.