The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Council approved Tuesday a $500 million spending package on environment, including nearly $170 mln on efforts to tackle biodiversity loss.

The agreement was sealed during the first day of the GEF Council meeting, taking place in Washington, DC over June 17-20.

Allocated through the GEF Trust Fund, the $495.6 mln package will finance 25 projects across South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Biodiversity projects received the largest share of funding with $169.2 mln. These include four initiatives aimed at strengthening protected areas in Argentina, Namibia, South Africa, and India.

A separate initiative in India is intended to contribute to halting and reversing the decline of migratory birds while also reducing the pressure on critical wetland habitats.

The allocation approved by the GEF Council will also finance projects on chemicals and waste reduction ($114.3 mln), land degradation ($92.6 mln), and climate change ($64.7 mln).

As well, $39.8 mln will go towards water management projects, and $15 mln will fund a non-grant instrument (NGI) programme.

Over the next few days, the GEF governing body will also decide on $200 mln for 14 climate adaptation initiatives through the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), and $37.8 mln for the GBFF’s first three projects, one in Mexico and two in Brazil, aimed at supporting a total of 30.5 mln hectares of marine and terrestrial protected areas.

Kickstarted in Aug. 2023 and administered by the GEF, the fund is intended to channel investments in species and ecosystem conservation and underpin the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) implementation.

However, after Canada, Germany, Japan, and the UK made initial commitments, only Spain and Luxembourg have pledged contributions to the fund, which has raised just $226.8 mln so far.

By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com

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