Global Environment Facility (GEF): Overview

Publication Date: October 2006

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Environment

Type:

Abstract:

The Global Environment Facility (GEF), established in 1991, has served since then as a primary source of funding for several major international environmental concerns. It was designed to provide incremental additional funding for development projects, in order to allow incorporation of environmental considerations in four specified areas: climate change, ozone depletion, biological diversity, and international waters. In recent years, land degradation and persistent organic pollutants have been added to its agenda. The GEF has provided funding to more than 1,300 projects in 140 nations. Although the United States has participated in the GEF since its inception, its level of contributions to the GEF has varied widely, from $30 million in 1994 to a high of $167 million in 1999, and to $80 million in 2006.