The Global Environment Facility (GEF) was established in 1992 to finance multiple international environmental conventions, with projects addressing one convention at a time. In 2014, increased awareness of the interconnectedness of today's environmental problems led the GEF to introduce an integrated approach. This major reform aimed to address the main drivers of global environmental degradation and deliver benefits across the conventions.

Since its introduction, the integrated approach has gained increasing prominence. More than $1 billion has now been allocated for integrated…

When it comes to making the private sector more environmentally sustainable, we don't usually think of the millions of small businesses—better known as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)— that dominate private sector activity in developing markets.

In the 2021 Evaluation of GEF Engagement with Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), we put a spotlight on how the GEF has worked with MSMEs in the last 30 years. We looked at a portfolio of 158 completed projects where MSMEs could clearly be identified as being part of project activities.…

It was the early 2010s: excitement was growing for the idea of a new international convention to combat mercury emissions. The Global Environment Facility (GEF), a critical source of funding for many international conventions, was considering how to prepare for the new convention's eventual creation. The stakes were high—GEF needed to show that it was a capable financial mechanism for the future convention even though up until then, its…

COP26 is about to start in Scotland and thousands of government and civil society representatives, international organization and private sector types, scientists, journalists, and hangers-on are descending upon the city of Glasgow while the pandemic is still ongoing. In fact, the accommodations in town and its surroundings are already so overbooked that many participants have to stay in Edinburgh, some 40 minutes' train ride away.

The gathering is the 26th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the hopes are high that, finally, the…

By: Madeleine McKinnon, Consultant, GEF IEO

When COVID-19 was discovered in Malaysia, it affected a GEF project supporting reduction in greenhouse emissions across building infrastructure in the health and hospitality sectors (UNIDO GEF ID:4878). Site visits to industrial facilities were immediately halted as social movement was restricted countrywide. Subsequently in July 2020, restrictions began to ease after the first wave, but the longer-term effects of the economic downturn were beginning to take hold. Enterprises such as hotels were unwilling to invest in…