Focal Areas

The GEF funds projects in six focal areas:

• Biodiversity
• Climate change
• International waters
• Ozone depletion
• Land degradation
• Persistent organic pollutants

Find more information on these focal areas' operational programs.

Biodiversity

A wide spectrum of efforts to conserve and sustainably use earth's biological diversity makes up nearly half of all GEF projects. As the financial mechanism for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), GEF receives guidance from the conference of parties (or COP) on policy, strategy, program priorities, and eligibility criteria related to the use of resources for purposes of the Convention. Projects generally deal with one or more of four critical ecosystem types and the human communities found there: 1) arid and semi-arid zones; 2) coastal, marine, and freshwater resources; 3) forests; and 4) mountains.

Between 1991 and 2004, GEF allocated $1.89 billion in grants and mobilized an additional $3.80 billion in co-financing (from recipient countries, bilateral agencies, other development institutions, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations) for biological diversity projects.

For more information, visit the Biodiversity page.

Climate change

Projects addressing climate change make up the next largest group of GEF-funded projects.  As the financial mechanism for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), GEF receives guidance from the COP on policy, program priorities, and eligibility criteria related to the Convention. Climate change projects are designed to reduce the risks of global climate change while providing energy for sustainable development. GEF climate change projects are organized into four areas: 1) removing barriers to energy efficiency and energy conservation; 2) promoting the adoption of renewable energy by removing barriers and reducing implementation costs; 3) reducing the long-term costs of low greenhouse gas emitting energy technologies; and 4) supporting the development of sustainable transport.

From 1991 to 2004, GEF allocated $1.74 billion to climate change projects and enabling activities, which was matched by more than $9.29 billion in co-financing.

For more information, visit the Climate Change page.

International waters

GEF projects to reverse the degradation of international waters are informed by-and help to realize the objectives of-a mosaic of regional and international water agreements. These projects enable countries to recognize and learn more about the water-related challenges they share, find ways to work together, and undertake important domestic changes needed to solve problems. The three categories of water projects are: 1) water bodies; 2) integrated land and water projects; and 3) contaminants.

From 1991 to 2004, GEF allocated nearly $767 million to international waters initiatives and generating additional co-financing of $2.11 billion.

Ozone depletion

Phasing out ozone depleting substances (ODS) is a highly effective means to achieving immediate, and future, global environmental benefits. The GEF, in partnership with the Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention on Ozone Layer Depleting Substances, funds projects that enable the Russian Federation and nations in eastern Europe and central Asia to phase out their use of ozone destroying chemicals.  After more than a decade of international cooperation, the concentration of some of these chemicals in the atmosphere has already started to decline.

Between 1991 and 2004, the GEF allocated more than $177 million to projects to phase out ODS and a co-financing of $182 million.

Land degradation

GEF's interest in financing activities to prevent and control land degradation comes from the nature and extent of its link to global environmental change.  Destroyed forests and degraded water resources imperil biodiversity, induce climate change, and disturb hydrologic cycles.  Taking into account the objectives of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), dozens of GEF projects cut across the four focal areas described above to address land degradation.  In October 2002, the GEF Assembly approved land degradation as a new focal area, which means that a project may tackle land degradation as its primary objective. In September 2003, UNCCD designated the GEF as an offical financial mechanism.

Between 2002 and 2004, GEF has funded more than $72 million worth of projects focused primarily on combating deforestation and desertification. It has also leveraged an additional amount of $155 million in co-financing.

For more information, visit the Land Degradation page.

Persistent Organic Pollutants

In May 2001, governments adopted the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and named the GEF as the convention's interim financial mechanism, pending entry into force of the convention. In October 2002, the GEF Assembly approved the addition of POPs as a new focal area.

POPs are highly stable compounds that circulate globally through a repeated process of evaporation and deposit, and are transported through the atmosphere and the oceans to regions far away from their original source. They accumulate in the tissue of living organisms, which absorb POPs through food, water, and air. The effects of POPs exposure include birth defects, cancers, and dysfunctional immune and reproductive systems. POPs are also a threat to biodiversity, and even have the potential to cause disruption at the ecosystem level.

From 2001 to 2004, GEF funded more than $141 million POPs projects with co-financing of $91 million.

For more information, visit the POPs page.