World Summit on Sustainable Development Department of Public Information - News and Media Services Division - New York
	Johannesburg, South Africa 26 August-4 September 2002	30 August 2002

PRESS CONFERENCE BY GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACILITY   Since the 1992 "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janiero the Global Environment Facility (GEF) had grown from a private programme to the largest investor in the global environment, providing some $4 billion in grants, while leveraging an additional $12.4 billion through co-financing for more than 1,000 projects in 160 developing countries and transition economies, its Chief Executive Officer and Chairman said today at a Summit press conference. Mohamed El-Ashry said the GEF, an independent financial entity comprising 171 member countries, had been a catalyst in transferring technologies, working with governments, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations and international institutions to address complex environmental issues in the priority areas of: conservation of biodiversity; reducing the risks of climate change through renewable energy and energy efficiency; protecting the ozone layer; cleaning up international waters; and stopping land degradation; and eliminating persistent organic pollutants. An independent assessment of GEF had found that it had indeed produced noteworthy results and on 7 August, donor nations pledged nearly $3 billion for new GEF activities through 2006, the highest replenishment of the Facility ever. The additional funds would enable GEF not only to continue financing its main areas, but also to provide additional support to implementation of the Climate Change Convention and so-called Stockholm Convention, he said. The new replenishment would also enable it to help implement this Summit's agreements. The Facility would also be able to do more in the area of land degradation, particularly desertification such as in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as in the area of persistent organic pollutants, or toxic substances. The first assistance would be for countries to prepare strategies and action plans to phase out those toxic chemicals that had already been phased out in the North, and for clean-up efforts of existing toxic stockpiles, he continued. In Africa, an initiative was being put together with the World Bank and others to clean up old stockpiles of toxic chemicals. He added that GEF had provided the start-up funding for the Summit's "greening initiative", to try and make its environmental footprint as light as possible. Responding to a question about GEF's involvement in partnership announcements, he stressed that, with its small resources compared to the tremendous needs, it had "partnered", as reflected in the $12.5 billion that had been mobilized. The Facility was a partner in some of the initiatives being announced, but it had decided not to participate in the announcements, because it had already gotten the credit for the investments it had made and it had not wanted to "double count". In the last decade, GEF had become the largest single financial contributor of renewable energy in the developing world, he replied to another question. That had included wind energy in India and the provision of an alternative to "dirty" cooking stoves and charcoal use, which had affected the health mainly of women and children; GEF had provided more efficient cooking stoves for biomass activities. It was also seeking to address the productive uses of energy, particularly in rural areas to enable farmers to pump irrigation, among other things. It was also hoping to provide electricity for health centres and schools, and the cottage industry. Responding to a question about new projects in Arab countries, he said the emphasis on land degradation would be very useful there, where a number of projects on desertification and biodiversity for conservation were under way. There were also several energy efficiency programmes, including in Egypt and Syria, and renewable energy activities in Egypt, as well in other parts of northern Africa. A solar thermo power plant was under construction in Morocco and one was being planned for Egypt. In terms of contributions, he replied to a further question, the basic premise was that the major part should come from member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as outlined in Agenda 21. Of the 34 countries that had contributed to the most recent replenishment, 29 were OECD and five were developing countries or economies in transition. For the OECD countries, there was an agreed formula for burden sharing based on gross domestic product (GDP). Contributions were voluntary for other countries. He noted that China, India, Côte d'Ivoire, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Pakistan had contributed to that latest effort. In the past, Brazil, Egypt and Argentina had done so, but owing to their present economic situations, they had not done so recently. Some countries had indicated that they would announce additional contributions here in Johannesburg, which would hopefully bring the fund up to the desired $3 billion mark. China had been the largest recipient of GEF assistance, he said to another question, mainly for activities in the energy area, including the modernization of all coal-fired boilers there. It was also seeking to provide renewable energy through a partnership over the next 10 years, as well as energy conservation projects in five provinces. It was also addressing land and water linkages in western China, given the particular problem of land degradation there. To a question about how the Facility would address problems of backlog, he said that over the last one or two years, funds were insufficient to address all of the "mature" projects. The new replenishment would enable the implementation of those in the pipeline, as well as new ones.   Press Conferences Summit News