GEF's Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) semi-annual meeting

On Sept. 20 2012, the GEF CEO and Chairperson opened the semi-annual meeting of the GEF's Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP), which was hosted by the GEF Secretariat in last September. The GEF CEO shared her vision for the GEF's future and discussed how STAP can contribute to that future. She asked the STAP Panel Members for their recommendations on how the GEF could further strengthen its performance in terms of supporting more transformative projects, enhancing innovation, and operating at scale.

Braulio de Souza Dias, Executive Secetary for the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) participated in the meeting, representing the first time that a head of a UN Convention Secretariat attended a STAP meeting. As well, representatives fromt the Secretariats of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), GEF agencies, and other experts attended the meeting.

The STAP discussed key scientific and technical issues on which it is providing advice to the GEF, including the role of technology in efforts to combat climate change in the context of urban development, disruption of the global nitrogen cycle, and issues of soil and forest carbon. The meeting closed out with a review of the STAP's future work program for providing advice to the GEF, including in the context of the GEF-6 replenishment focal area strategies.

The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) of the GEF comprises seven expert advisers supported by a Secretariat, which are together responsible for connecting the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to the most up to date, authoritative and globally representative science. 

For more infromation contact Thomas Hammond, STAP Secretary, thomas.hammond@unep.org.