Protecting global biodiversity receives boost as 29 countries pledge over $5 billion to the Global Environment Facility

8 April 2022 – More than $5 billion has been pledged by twenty-nine countries for the Global Environment Facility (GEF), providing a major boost to international efforts to protect biodiversity and curb threats from climate change, plastics, and toxic chemicals through collaboration action this decade. Announced today, the support totals $5.25 billion and increases the GEF’s funding by nearly 30 per cent compared to its most recent four-year operating cycle. The GEF is the primary source of financing for biodiversity protection globally and is the only multilateral fund working across all aspects of environmental health. “These pledges are critically important for the successful implementation of the new post-2020 global biodiversity framework,” said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity. “This strong replenishment of the GEF, with the substantial share of it for biodiversity protection, shows the global commitment to the transformative change needed to bend the curve on biodiversity loss. Matched by early action grants provided by the GEF in its seventh funding period, lays the groundwork for protecting biodiversity, using it sustainably, and sharing the benefits with equity.” Biodiversity protection represents the biggest share of the GEF’s eighth programming period, known as GEF-8, which will run from July 2022 to June 2026. This support will be vital to the achievement of the biodiversity agenda, including implementation of the new post-2020 global biodiversity framework, expected to be agreed at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP-15) later this year in Kunming China. The Convention on Biological Diversity recently held its first in-person meetings in two years. Following 15 days of negotiation in Geneva, world governments produced a strong basis for a post 2020 framework to safeguard the health of the planet. Governments agreed to hold a fourth meeting of the open-ended working group tasked with developing the post-2020 framework in June, prior to the adoption of the framework in Kunming.