Failure to find adequate funds may hamper Kunming-Montreal biodiversity targets

Failure to find adequate funds may hamper Kunming-Montreal biodiversity targets

Subject : Environment

Section: International Convention

Context:

• Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council meeting is being held on 26 June 2023 in Brazil.

Details:

• GEF was tasked to find funds for the implementation of the Global Diversity framework adopted last December at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
• At COP15, it was decided that a new trust fund, the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBF), would be put in place to run the projects under the framework.
• Under Target 19 of the GBF, members have to generate at least $200 billion per year by 2030 for biodiversity.
• Financial assistance to developing countries and countries with economies in transition has to reach at least $20 billion per year by 2025 and at least $30 billion per year by 2030.
• GEF hopes that the initial contributions to the fund would reach $200 million from at least three donors by December 2023.
• The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund would separate biodiversity from the remaining financing by GEF, which at present manages six multilateral environmental agreements.
  • Other than the Convention on Biological Diversity, GEF also funds the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Minamata Convention on Mercury and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
• A seventh — United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction — is likely to be added to this list at the Brazil meeting.

About Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council:

• The Global Environment Facility has a unique governing structure organized around an Assembly, the Council, the Secretariat, 18 agencies, a Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel, and the Evaluation Office.
• The GEF serves as a financial mechanism for several environmental conventions.
• The Council:
  • The Council, the GEF’s main governing body, comprises 32 members appointed by constituencies of GEF member countries (14 from developed countries, 16 from developing countries, and two from economies in transition).
  • Council members rotate at different intervals determined by each constituency.
  • The Council, which meets twice annually, develops, adopts and evaluates the operational policies and programs for GEF-financed activities.
  • It also reviews and approves the work program (projects submitted for approval), making decisions by consensus.