Global Environment Facility

About Global Environment Facility: 

• It was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit of UNFCC to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems. 
• It is a family of funds dedicated to confronting biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution, and strains on land and ocean health.
• It provides financial assistance for five major international environmental conventions:
  • Minamata Convention on Mercury.
  • Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
  • United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD)
  • United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• It has 184 member countries, including India.
• The governing council is the main governing body of GEF which comprises 32 members appointed by constituencies of GEF member countries (14 from developed countries, 16 from developing countries, and two from economies in transition).
• Secretariat: Its secretariat is based in Washington, D.C.
• The GEF Trust Fund was established to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems. 

Funds are available to developing countries and countries with economies in transition to meet the objectives of the international environmental conventions and agreements.

Q1: What is the Nagoya Protocol?

Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (the Protocol) is a legally binding global agreement that implements the access and benefit-sharing obligations of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Source: Amount of $736.4 million to be disbursed at 67th council meet of Global Environment Facility at Washington