PRESS RELEASE
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CEO Barbut Urges Unity of Effort, Streamlining of Implementation
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DURBAN, South Africa, Dec. 1, 2011 – The Global Environment Facility, world’s largest public funder of international environmental projects, supports an ambitious agenda at the world conference on climate change to better integrate many elements that contribute to global warming, including desertification, habitat protection and pollution reduction.
GEF is among the international organizations participating in the conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – Durban, 2011, or COP 17. The conference, which concludes Dec. 9, covers a broad range of issues and challenges relating to global efforts to address climate change.
Monique Barbut, GEF’s CEO and Chairperson, is attending the conference and participating in a number of the forums and high-level meetings among world leaders and international organization chiefs gathering in Durban.
“Regarding the overall effort to combat climate change, we clearly need to re-energize the global commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Barbut.
“I am concerned that the effort has become too fragmented with too many organizations and too many different funds competing for increasingly scarce financial resources. I would like to see greater unity of effort at the organizational level and also the conceptual level,” Barbut said. “Twenty years after Rio, we have come to realize that biodiversity, climate change, and sustainable land management are integral parts of the same puzzle. We need to approach these challenges with that understanding.”
The GEF has a well-established role serving as the implementing organization for international environmental agreements and conventions, including the UNFCCC. GEF also serves as the financial mechanism for the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification.
A key point that Barbut is emphasizing at COP 17 concerns the interrelationship between environmental challenges that all too often are treated as entirely separate problems. Desertification, biodiversity and pollution prevention all have direct linkages to climate change and should be considered as parts of the larger climate problem, Barbut contends.
As the Conference of the Parties unfolds in Durban, the GEF is proud to be working with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and South Africa in funding a project called “Greening the COP 17.” The project demonstrates the host country’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by promoting clean energy sources and supporting climate-change awareness among decision-makers and the general public.
Barbut and other GEF officers are participating in a number of COP17 events covering a broad range of topics from financing challenges to the issue of adaptation to climate change, energy efficiency, smart agriculture, and water resources. Visit our COP17 section for a full list of GEF events, venues and participants.
For the full UNFCCC agenda, visit the COP17 official website.
Contacts
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Mr. John Diamond |
About the Global Environment Facility
The GEF unites 182 countries in partnership with international institutions, civil society organizations (CSOs), and the private sector to address global environmental issues while supporting national sustainable development initiatives. Today the GEF is the largest public funder of projects to improve the global environment. An independently operating financial organization, the GEF provides grants for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants.
Since 1991, GEF has achieved a strong track record with developing countries and countries with economies in transition, providing $10.7 billion in grants and leveraging $50 billion in co-financing for over 2,900 projects in over 168 countries.Through its Small Grants Programme (SGP), the GEF has also made more than 13,000 small grants directly to civil society and community based organizations, totalling $634 million.
Official website: http://www.thegef.org