News Stories

IPCC report finds that land is under growing human pressure, and that climate change is adding to challenges such as degradation, desertification, deforestation, and food insecurity. Photo: Richard Whitcombe/Shutterstock

August 8, 2019

IPCC Special Report reflects urgency of better land management to combat climate change
Bringing together key stakeholders from public and private institutions to discuss scaling investment in climate adaptation, FASTR provided a platform for leaders to showcase existing initiatives and best practices for climate adaptation investment and to announce new commitments to climate adaptation over the coming years. Photo: Volodymyr Goinyk/Shutterstock.

July 10, 2019

New commitments to scaling up climate adaptation investment
With backing from the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Nigeria has joined forces with UN Environment and partners to turn the tide on e-waste, under the Circular Economy Approaches for the Electronics Sector in Nigeria project. Photo: Imfoto/Shutterstock.

June 19, 2019

Nigeria turns the tide on electronic waste
FAO welcomed a decision by the Council of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to provide $179 million to support the UN agency's work with countries worldwide at the critical nexus between agriculture and the environment. This includes projects focused on biodiversity conservation, transboundary water resources management, sustainable land management, highly hazardous pesticide remediation, and climate change adaptation. Photo: Jen Watson/Shutterstock.

June 18, 2019

New funding boosts efforts to combat deforestation, desertification, climate change and strengthen food systems
Pasture and cattle in the mountains near Almaty, Kazakhstan. The Dryland Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) Program will focus on three dryland regions, including the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands of Central Asia. Photo: Patrizia Cocca/GEF

June 17, 2019

World Day to Combat Desertification 2019: Let's grow the future together
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

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

GEF Council approves largest-ever single batch of projects and programs
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

Reduce, reuse and recycle: a circular economy approach to plastics
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

As environmental threats grow, there is no room for complacency
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

Countries gather for landmark GEF council meeting
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

The circular economy: tackling plastic pollution
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

Global Commons Alliance to help tackle threats to health of the planet
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

Countries meet to discuss efforts to increase transparency around climate change commitments
The Good Growth Conference brings together more than 300 national and international experts, government leaders, executives, civil society practitioners and indigenous leaders to share and promote solutions for the sustainable production of agricultural commodities, which are responsible for an estimated 70% of tropical deforestation worldwide. Photo: Maria Paz Gonzales/PNUD Peru.

May 17, 2019

President of Peru joins call for sustainable production of agricultural commodities
In GEF-7 over $US1 billion has been allocated to biodiversity protection. But, it’s increasingly evident that most damage takes place outside protected areas. Photo: Elena Prosvirova

May 6, 2019

GEF CEO Statement on the IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services