What is the Global Environment Facility (GEF)

The IDB is an executing agency for the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The facility was established in October 1991 to provide new and additional grants and concessional funding to cover the "incremental" or additional costs associated with transforming a project with national benefits into one with global environmental benefits. The GEF unites 180 member governments in partnership with international institutions, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector. It is today the largest funder of projects to improve the global environment, with over $8.8 billion allocated through 2,400 projects in more than 165 developing countries and countries with economies in transition around the world. These projects are specifically related to the work areas of biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, sustainable forrest management, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants.

The GEF is also the designated financial mechanism for a number of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) or conventions; as such the GEF assists countries in meeting their obligations under the conventions that they have signed and ratified. These conventions and MEAs provide guidance to the two governing bodies of the GEF: the GEF Council and the GEF Assembly.

Main Conventions:

• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

• Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

• UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)