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Washington, D.C., November 21, 2003.- 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
cofinancing 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. 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.
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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 cofinancing. |
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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 cofinancing from governments and other
sources. |
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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' 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. 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
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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. |
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Chile: Conserving Globally Significant Biodiversity along the
Chilean Coast |
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Madagascar: Third Environment Programme |
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Republic of Korea: Conservation of Globally Significant Wetlands |
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Vietnam: Forest Sector Development Project |
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Biodiversity (Biosafety) |
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Global: Add-on for Development of National Biosafety Frameworks
Project |
Climate Change
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Global: National Communications Program for Climate Change |
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Global: Fuel Cells Financing Initiative for Distributed
Generation Applications |
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Cuba: Generation and Delivery of Renewable Energy Based Modern
Energy Services in Cuba; the Case of Isla de la Juventud |
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Eritrea: Wind Energy Applications |
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Tunisia: Development of On-Grid Wind Electricity in Tunisia for
the 10th Plan |
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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, Congo DR, Cote d'Ivoire, 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)
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Brazil: Integrated Agro-Ecosystem Management in the North-Northwestern
Fluminense State of Rio de Janeiro |
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China: Nature Conservation and Flood Control in the Yangtze River
Basin |
For more information on these projects, please visit
www.theGEF.org.
About the GEF
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. 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. GEF has committed approximately US
$117.4 million in small grants to NGOs and community groups in developing
countries, directly involving them in addressing global environmental problems.
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