GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY APPROVES $224 MILLION IN GRANTS FOR 19 PROJECTS TO IMPROVE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY APPROVES $224 MILLION IN GRANTS

FOR 19 PROJECTS TO IMPROVE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

(Reissued as received.)

WASHINGTON, D.C., 21 November (UNEP) -- The Council of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) approved today $224 million in grants for 19 new projects in developing countries and countries with economies in transition -- including initiatives that promote the growth of markets for highly efficient fuel cells, provide financial assistance for environmentally-friendly small and medium-sized businesses, and support a newly signed treaty to protect the world’s largest natural lake.

“These GEF projects seek to protect the global environment while helping to create sustainable livelihoods for the world’s poorest people”, said Len Good, CEO and Chairman of the GEF.  “These projects are fine examples of the dynamic, innovative approaches and partnerships that will have a major impact”.  Mr. Good was presiding over the first meeting of the GEF Council since he assumed the post of CEO/Chairman last July.

The projects will be managed by GEF’s three implementing agencies:  the UN Development Programme, the UN Environment Programme, and the World Bank.  The $224 million in GEF grants has generated $612.9 million in co-financing from other sources, including the governments of participating countries.  The projects focus on the issues of biological diversity, biosafety, climate change, and international waters.

Highlights of this work program include: 

-- The Environmental Business Finance Program, to be implemented by the World Bank/International Finance Corporation (IFC), which seeks to provide small and medium enterprises with increased access to investment capital for environmentally-friendly business activities.  The GEF will work directly with lenders to help create a more conducive business environment for GEF-eligible business activities.  The $20 million GEF grant is expected to be supplemented by $70 million in co-financing from other sources.  A particularly innovative aspect of this global project is its system for linking environmental performance, measured by monitoring and evaluation indicators, to financial performance.  Under this system, funding allocations would be directly correlated with global environmental benefits.

-- A project funded by a $9.9 million GEF grant that will promote the use of fuel cells -- a highly efficient energy technology -- in developing countries.  The project will help accelerate technology transfer to developing countries, while simultaneously contributing to enlarging the global market so that the cost of fuel cells may be lowered.  The World Bank/IFC will manage the project.  Private parties who will take part in the project will contribute $9 million in co-financing.

-- A $6.4 million GEF grant which will support the implementation of a new treaty for the protection of the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest freshwater lake.  Four regional environmental concerns will be addressed:  unsustainable use of biological resources; other threats to biodiversity, including invasive species; pollution; and unsustainable coastal area development.  The UN Development Programme will manage the project, which will be supplemented with $25.8 million in co-financing from governments and other sources.

-- A $4 million grant, to be supplemented by $23 million in co-financing from other sources, which will support China’s efforts to reduce floods in the Yangtze River basin, home to one-third of the country’s population.  In 1998, catastrophic floods killed 1,562 people, affected another 2.29 million, and caused direct economic losses of about $20 billion.  The 1998 floods were not isolated events, and it is apparent that the scale and frequency of Yangtze River floods have reached the level where sustainable development of the basin is threatened.  The GEF will provide support to the Government of China in applying integrated ecosystem management techniques at two demonstration sites to control floods, conserve biodiversity, and sequester and reduce carbon emissions.  An early warning system will be established to improve the response to future floods.  The project will be managed by UNEP, a GEF implementing agency, in partnership with China’s State Environmental Protection Administration.  A replication strategy and plan for the entire Yangtze River Basin based on lessons learned will be developed and implemented by the Chinese government after project completion.

Each GEF project contains plans for monitoring and evaluation so that performance can be assessed.  Lessons learned are used to improve the management and design of the projects, while still in the implementation stage and of future projects. In addition, projects are required to be country-driven, in other words, driven by the priorities of the involved country.

The 19 projects approved by the GEF Council are as follows: 

Biological Diversity

-- Regional (Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, South Africa, Tanzania, Yemen, Turkey):  Enhancing Conservation of the Critical Network of Sites of Wetlands Required by Migratory Waterbirds on the African/Eurasian Flyways

-- Chile:  Conserving Globally Significant Biodiversity along the Chilean Coast

-- Madagascar: Third Environment Programme

-- Republic of Korea:  Conservation of Globally Significant Wetlands

-- Vietnam:  Forest Sector Development Project

Biodiversity (Biosafety)

-- Global:  Add-on for Development of National Biosafety Frameworks Project Climate Change

-- Global:  National Communications Program for Climate Change

-- Global:  Fuel Cells Financing Initiative for Distributed Generation Applications

-- Cuba:  Generation and Delivery of Renewable Energy Based Modern Energy Services in Cuba; the Case of Isla de la Juventud

-- Eritrea:  Wind Energy Applications

-- Tunisia:  Development of On-Grid Wind Electricity in Tunisia for the tenth Plan

-- Tunisia:  Development of an Energy Efficiency Program for the Industrial Sector for Tunisia

International Waters

-- Global:  Coral Reef Targeted Research and Capacity Building

-- Regional (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Turkmenistan):  Towards a Convention and Action Programme for the Protection of the Caspian Sea Environment (Phase II)

-- Regional (Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal):  Combating Living Resource Depletion and Coastal Area Degradation in the Guinea Current LME through Ecosystem-based Regional Act

-- China:  Hai River Basin Integrated Water Resources Management Multiple Focal Areas

-- Global:  Environmental Business Finance Program (EBFP)

-- Brazil:  Integrated Agro-Ecosystem Management in the North-Northwestern Fluminense State of Rio de Janeiro

-- China:  Nature Conservation and Flood Control in the Yangtze River Basin

For more information on these projects, please visit www.theGEF.org.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is an international financial organization with 176 member countries that acts as a major catalyst for improving the global environment.  The GEF grants support projects in developing countries in the areas of biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants.

Since its creation in 1991, the GEF has allocated $4.5 billion in grants to support more than 1,300 projects in more than 140 developing nations and countries with economies in transition.  The GEF has committed approximately US $117.4 million in small grants to non-governmental organizations and community groups in developing countries, directly involving them in addressing global environmental problems.

Media Contact:  Hutton G. Archer, Global Environment Facility (GEF), tel:  1 (202) 473-0508, fax:  1 (202) 522-3240, e-mail:  harcher@theGEF.org, Web site:  www.theGEF.org.

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