Multilateral fund offers $5.33 billion over 4 years to help solve biodiversity woes

Multilateral fund offers $5.33 billion over 4 years to help solve biodiversity woes

Subject : Environment

Section:: International treaty

Context: The Global Environment Facility, the only multilateral fund focused on biodiversity, has promised to provide $5.33 billion over the next four years to address problems related to biodiversity worldwide

Concept:

Global Environment Facility:

• It was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, is a catalyst for action on the environment
• It is a UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP of 18 agencies — including United Nations agencies, multilateral development banks, national entities and international NGOs
• It was working with 183 countries to address the world’s most challenging environmental issues
• It is a FINANCIAL MECHANISM for five major international environmental conventions:

1. the Minamata Convention on Mercury,
2. the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs),
3. the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD),
4. the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
5. the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

• It is also an INNOVATOR AND CATALYST that supports multi-stakeholder alliances to preserve threatened ecosystems on land and in the oceans, build greener cities, boost food security and promote clean energy for a more prosperous, climate-resilient world
• The GEF Trust Fund was established to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems
• Funds are available to developing countries and countries with economies in transition to meet the objectives of the international environmental conventions and agreements

Aichi Biodiversity Targets:

It was established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in an effort to protect and conserve the biodiversity that underpins global food security, health and clean water

Officially known as “strategic plan for Biodiversity 2011 to 2020”, it provided a set of 20 ambitious yet achievable targets collectively known as the Aichi Targets for biodiversity.