Your Excellency, Ms. Saida Mirziyoyeva, Head of Administration of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan,
Claude Gascon, Interim CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility,
Ministers, partners, friends,
Just under thirty-five years ago, in 1991, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was born.
Established as a pilot phase ahead of the Rio Summit, the GEF was created from a simple but powerful recognition: there were rising environmental challenges that transcended national borders, and countries needed support to manage these threats locally, while delivering global environmental benefits.
Since then, the GEF has delivered solution after solution. Solutions that reach communities, protect nature, tackle pollution and underwrite resilience – and in turn, help governments deliver on their global commitments through local, regional and national action.
But it was always clear that such action must be anchored in science. The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP), the advisory body to GEF that UNEP is proud to host, has been the scientific foundation that builds on the global science policy panels and beyond: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the recently established Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste and Pollution (ISP-CWP).
This science continues to provide the guardrails to ensure the solutions delivered by the GEF remain effective in a rapidly changing and complex world.
Integrated science-based action is a core lever in the GEF partnership. And integration and collaboration across agencies have been pivotal elements of success. From an initial three, the GEF today boasts the richness of 18 agencies.
As we look to GEF-9, both sectoral integration and agency collaboration should become the standard across the GEF landscape.
We have an opportunity to make multi-focal, co-benefit-driven design the norm rather than the exception.
We can also draw on the respective strength and skills of each GEF implementing agency – be it sector-specific depth, the ability to mobilize public and private capital, community and society outreach, or boots on the ground in the form of universal presence. When each agency brings its skills, client countries are better served and can select the agency – or agencies – that best meet their needs.
During a complex and centrifugal time, we also congratulate the GEF Secretariat, the Trustee – the World Bank – and the entire GEF membership, most notably the contributing countries, for the replenishment achieved.
And we fully endorse the criticality of blended finance. At UNEP, we see blended finance as a value chain. Capital stacking cannot occur or be effective unless we set up enabling policies, incentives and taxonomies as well as standards, regulations, laws and incentives that will incubate feasible environmentally positive project pipelines – creating a predicable investment climate that turns environmental challenges into investment and development opportunities.
Friends,
35 years on, the need for a strong GEF has never been more important. Our work is far from finished. UNEP – and indeed all the GEF Implementing Agencies – remain committed to standing shoulder to shoulder with the GEF as we safeguard the planet for generations to come.
