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The 56th GEF Council meeting passed its biggest ever work program, totalling $865.9 million from its Trust Fund. It was then followed by a meeting of two smaller GEF funds – the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) and the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) - which approved work programs adding up to a further $101.57 million. Photo: Balate Dorin/Shutterstock.

June 14, 2019 | Press Release

Close to $1 billion approved for environment and climate action at GEF meetings
While their small size, relative isolation and unique biodiversity place many SIDS amongst the world’s most sought-after tourist destinations – with the sector representing more than 30 per cent of SIDS' total exports – they are also especially vulnerable to environmental threats. Photo: Michal Durinik/Shutterstock.

June 13, 2019 | News

Taking the fight to the frontline: Island states unite to end pollution
In all, the landmark work program represents new priorities for the GEF to address the need for systems change as the challenges of safeguarding the global commons - the shared resources that ensure a habitable planet upon which we can all thrive - get ever greater. Photo: mbrand85/Shutterstock.

June 12, 2019 | News

GEF Council approves largest-ever single batch of projects and programs
Opening the 56th GEF Council, GEF CEO and Chairperson Naoko Ishii said: “Science provides us with the crystal-clear message that the natural world is under attack. We humans have pushed the carrying capacity of the planet to its limits. Unless we urgently change the way we live, we will lose the favourable Earth conditions that are the very foundations of our own prosperity.” Photo: <a href="http://enb.iisd.org/gef/council56/10jun.html">IISD/ENB | Francis Dejon</a>.

June 11, 2019 | News

As environmental threats grow, there is no room for complacency
The GEF Small Grants Programme launched its new publication titled “Plastics Management and Circular Economy: Community Solutions.” The publication captures the experiences and lessons learnt from community-based plastics management and promotes the circular economy system at a local and community level. Photo: <a href="http://enb.iisd.org/gef/council56/10jun.html">IISD/ENB | Francis Dejon</a>.

June 11, 2019 | News

Reduce, reuse and recycle: a circular economy approach to plastics
A circular economy would both maximise the benefits of plastics and minimise their ill effects, through such measures as producing them from plants rather than fossil fuels; redesigning products to cut waste and make them last; encouraging recycling and reuse; and using plastic wastes as a resource. Such measures also need to be accompanied by reducing demand for plastic products and discouraging non-essential ones. Photo: alterfalter/Shutterstock.

June 10, 2019 | News

The circular economy: tackling plastic pollution
Key to the $865.9 million work program, which if approved will be the largest single batch of projects and program ever in the history of the GEF, are four “Impact Programs”. These set out to bring countries together in an integrated approach directed at tackling the drivers of environmental destruction, and not just its symptoms. Photo: Tetyana Dotsenko/Shutterstock.

June 10, 2019 | News

Countries gather for landmark GEF Council meeting
Speaking at the opening of the Ecosperity 2019 conference in Singapore today, Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) acknowledged “the extremely worrying picture” coming from science about the state of the planet, and highlighted a new Global Commons Alliance that is being set-up to help tackle the problem. Photo: Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock.

June 6, 2019 | News

Global Commons Alliance to help tackle threats to health of the planet
Although the Amazighe have been able to maintain Imegdale’s ecological balance through ingenious socio-ecological management systems, there are threats that render this delicate balance precarious.

June 5, 2019 | Feature Story

Harnessing traditional knowledge and innovation in Morocco, conservation and livelihoods flourish
Together, if we meet the SDGs, we will do something no generation has achieved since the first industrial revolution: we can hand to tomorrow’s generation a planet in better shape than we inherited it. Photo: TTstudio/Shutterstock.

June 4, 2019 | Blog

Why investors must look beyond returns
That mitigating the climate crisis must be an integrated effort is very much at the heart of how ADB as an institution is responding to this and other development challenges with its “One ADB approach”. Photo: Tonle Sap, Cambodia; takepicsforfun/Shutterstock.

June 3, 2019 | Blog

All hands on deck: the climate crisis is here
In Costa Rica, Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency support allowed the Ministry of Environment and Energy to build an online platform that will track progress to the country’s ambitious goals. The platform will allow data producers to input data and for data users to gain an understanding of how the country is doing to meet its National Determined Contributions. Photo: Stefan Scherer-Emunds/Shutterstock.

May 30, 2019 | Blog

Helping countries improve transparency to meet bold climate commitments
Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency participant countries and donors came away from the Rome gathering reinvigorated and recommitted to making transparency a priority in the Paris process. In particular, participants gained a sense of urgency considering the rapidly approaching deadline for the new transparency reports under the Paris Agreement and its linkages to more ambitious National Determined Contributions.

May 30, 2019 | News

Countries meet to discuss efforts to increase transparency around climate change commitments
Accenture estimates that going circular stands to add $4.5 trillion in value to the global economy – and without the damaging effects on the global commons inflicted by historical economic development. Photo: Comaniciu Dan/Shutterstock.

May 30, 2019 | Blog

Going circular offers a great opportunity
Today, farmers are shouldering the burden of adapting to the climate crisis. Food and agriculture can be powerful solutions in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, investing in soil health and innovating to sequester carbon. Photo: happystock/Shutterstock.

May 29, 2019 | Blog

Transforming the food system to feed tomorrow’s world