Press Conference: GEF mobilizes close to 500 million dollars for biodiversity, UN Convention on Biodiversity - COP 17 Conferences Date: 26 October 2026 Language: English Transcript: https://transcripts.un.org/en/asset/k16/k16gnfht3u Transcripts available through this tool are created by using automatic speech recognition and are not official records nor official documents of the United Nations. Official records and official documents are available on the Official Document System of the United Nations. --- GEF · Senior External Relations Officer, Global Biodiversity Framework Fund [0:00]: Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to soon start the press conference from the CEO of the Global Environment Facility, talking about the recent pledging event that finished just moments ago, about the money that's donated to, provided to the GEF-9 replenishment and to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund. So please take your seats, and we'll get started. Sure. Let me introduce the people we've got up on stage. So it's my pleasure. First of all, my name is David Ainsworth. I'm the Senior External Relations Officer for the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund of the Global Environment Facility. Today, in our short press event, we will have the Chairman and CEO of the Global Environment Facility, Diego Mesa-Puyo, who has joined us, I guess, about three weeks ago now, a little more than three weeks. Beside him is Chizuru Aoki, who is the lead for the Multilateral Environment Agreements Fund or division of the Secretariat, as well as the team lead for the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund. And also on stage is Robert Bisset, who is the head of communications for the Secretariat of the Global Environment Facility. This will be a fairly informal event, but we will start with the CEO providing a few remarks about the pledging event that we just finished now. And then we will be able to take questions. So, Diego, the floor is yours. GEF · Chairperson and CEO [1:30]: Thank you very much, David, and good evening to all of you. It's a pleasure to be here, and we are here to share the outcome of a pledging session that we just did for the family of funds of the Global Environment Facility, for which I'm the new Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson. And just for a little bit of background, the importance of the GEF, or the G-E-F, is that it is the official financial mechanism for the CBD COP, as well as other five multilateral environmental agreements, including UNFCCC, which will be taking place next month in Turkey. Also, a bit of background, the way that the GEF operates is that every four years, donors to the GEF replenish the funds for the next four years. So we started the replenishment cycle number nine for 2026 to 2030, and that the initial contributions were announced in June in the General Assembly of the JF in Uzbekistan, Samarkand. And those initial contributions came at 3.9 US billion dollars for the next four years. So the event that we just had before this session, we had an number of new contributors or donors, both to the GBFF, which is the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund that was established about four years ago, and to the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund, the GEF. And combined, these additional resources that were announced Today, from what we had in June up to about a half an hour ago, come to 500 million US dollars for the GEF, which will take us from the 3.9 now to 4.4 billion US dollars. And for the GBFF, 60 million additional for that fund. alone, which only focuses on biodiversity. I would like to mention that for the GBFF, for the first time, we got a contribution from a city, from the city of Berlin. And this follows a contribution originally from the province of Quebec, who was the first sub-national government to contribute to the fund. And this was followed by a contribution from Germany at the federal level for GBFF, in addition to the contribution that they made to the GEF in June, and Iceland, which is a new contributor to the GBFF, as well as Monaco, and a new pledge from Quebec. And in addition to this, We also received a new pledge for the GEF Trust Fund from Spain, which announced today 50 million euros going into the GEF Trust Fund. We got also the first contribution from the government of Uzbekistan, who is also a new donor to the fund, in the order of 4.6 million US dollars. And we got the reconfirmation of the government of the United Kingdom, who is adding 330 million British pounds, which comes to 400 million US dollars that were not announced back in June. So the sum of this take us to the 500 million that we are announcing today. And another point that I wanted to make, which I think is quite important, is that The resources that come to the GEF usually have a significant multiplier in terms of mobilizing resources. So the GEF 8 cycle, which was between 2022 and 2026, we were able, for every dollar that we invested during that period, we were able to mobilize around $8 of additional sources, whether we're public or private. And we've been increasing the work on blended finance, which mixes concessional financing with commercial financing. And in the case of blended finance, that multiplier is 18.5. So for every dollar of the GEF, we're able to mobilize 18.5. So this new cycle, which is now at 4.4, but we will have another pledging session in Turkey in the COP for UNFCCC. Hopefully, will bring us over 4.5 or more when we finalize the COP next year. And this already is the second largest cycle that we have had in the GEF in 30 years. So I think that's some good news, especially on finance day. So I'll pause there, David, but obviously happy for Robert or Chis to add. and complement. And a final point to make that just reminded me is that Armenia announced that they already started initial discussions to make a contribution as well. So we don't have a figure from them, but they publicly expressed that they're already discussing internally to make a contribution to the JEF. Thank you. GEF · Senior External Relations Officer, Global Biodiversity Framework Fund [7:54]: Great. Thank you very much, Diego. floor first and see if there are any questions before turning to panelists. Can we get a microphone? We have three questions here. Okay, he's gone to the back, so he'll start. Sorry to you at the front. I guess we're going to the back. We'll come to you next. Thanks. Please announce your name and your organization. Thanks. Journalist [8:12]: Thank you. My name is Emma Vardanian. I'm from First Television Company of Armenia, Public Television Company of Armenia. So here is my question. Following COP 16 in Cali, new biodiversity funding commitments were announced, but concerns remain about whether pledged funds are being delivered quickly enough to meet global conservation targets. In light of the new pledges announced at COP17 in Yerevan, how can Armenia ensure that these commitments translate into accessible funding, effective projects, and measurable results for biodiversity and local communities? Thank you. GEF · Senior External Relations Officer, Global Biodiversity Framework Fund [8:55]: Great, thanks for your question. Let's take another one. We'll take a few before we answer here. So there's the colleague here in the yellow blouse, the pale yellow blouse, a little closer. No, no, no, in the middle row here. Sorry, maybe the room attendant can help you. Look, you've got to do this work yourself. Speaker 6 [9:09]: The same. GEF · Senior External Relations Officer, Global Biodiversity Framework Fund [9:09]: Thank you very much. Thanks. Journalist [9:15]: I'm Satanic Ayre Bedjan from Third TV. I wonder how did working with Armenia's COP17 presidency help to achieve these funding pledges? Thank you. GEF · Senior External Relations Officer, Global Biodiversity Framework Fund [9:30]: Thank you. And let's pass the microphone to the gentleman in the front. We'll take his question and then we'll answer those. Thank you. Journalist [9:36]: Thank you. I am Galya Ginyan, Sputnik Armenia News Agency. Our Minister of Environment, just at the previous conference, has announced new financial pledges for a CARES initiative launched by 14 countries, including Armenia. When are those pledges actually going to be transferred to Jeff? And what are the projects that are going to be undertaken within them? GEF · Senior External Relations Officer, Global Biodiversity Framework Fund [10:04]: Great, thank you very much. Maybe I'll turn it over. So Diego, Chiz, can you both Speaker 12 [10:07]: Yes. GEF · Senior External Relations Officer, Global Biodiversity Framework Fund [10:08]: On those questions? Thank you. GEF · Chairperson and CEO [10:09]: So let me start. And I think especially the first and the third question had some commonalities. So first, let me say that the GEF 9 cycle has some programming directions which decides how these funds are going to be spent. And I think one very important message here is that 35% of the total funds will go directly to biodiversity, which is the main focal area of the GEF-9 cycle. But our estimates show that because we do a lot of integrated programming, about 70% of the total funds ultimately will generate benefits in terms of biodiversity. Two, there was a question about how to ensure that this gets to local communities. And I think this is a very important point as well. In addition to the focal areas, which I said biodiversity is 35%. which is followed by chemicals and waste with about 16, 17%, and then it has climate change mitigation, land, oceans, each with about 10%, and then the finance. We also have a number of other targets for the allocation, and one of them is for indigenous people and local communities, and there we're following what we've been doing with the GBFF, that is that 20% of all the financing goes to projects that could be implemented by action and related to local communities and indigenous peoples. So that's a way to ensure that at least 20% of the programming goes directly to local communities. And I can tell you that on Sunday, Sorry, on Saturday, we did a visit to Lake Sevan to visit three different projects that the GEF has been financing on biodiversity for Lake Sevan, and all of them had components directly related to local communities. So one of them is our small grants program, and we were able to see, for example, how these grants are able to use for additional activities that generate income for local communities. And we visited, for example, a glamping site in the banks of Lake Sevan, in addition to all the biodiversity and protection that these projects provide. And then There was a question as well about the work with the COP17 presidency and ensuring that these pledges are successful. And I think we have a great partnership with the COP presidency. We've been working very, very closely together. One of our priorities is to ensure that this COP is successful, and that includes Two important aspects. One is mobilizing additional resources. This is exactly what we were doing with this pledging session, with the $500 million going into GEF Trust Fund and with the $60 million going into the GBFF, but also expanding the donor base. And that's why we were very pleased to announce that we have a total of nine new contributors to the GEF family of funds. I'll pause there and I'll ask Chis to complement and Robert so we can answer the questions fully. GEF · Lead, Multilateral Environment Agreements Division; Team Lead, Global Biodiversity Framework Fund [14:04]: Thank you, Diego. Just to add to what Diego has already clarified, so how do we ensure commitment translates to action on the ground? Basically, any resources we get, as soon as it goes into, whether it's GEF Trust Fund or the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, it's ready to be mobilized. any proposal that comes to us, it has to be country driven. So the countries themselves have to clarify, this is in line with our national priority. And of course, the national priority could be implemented at the local level. It could have actions in many countries from indigenous people and local communities. It could be looking at people's livelihoods. It could be looking into conservation. It could be looking into ecosystems. It runs a gamut. It all depends on how the countries themselves say, this is our priority. So then the country would actually say, this is our priority, we want to endorse this project to access either the GEF resources or the GBFF resources. For the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, At COP15, parties requested the project cycle to be much quicker and the money to be released in a much more streamlined fashion. So we're doing that already. And we are also very happy that within the Jeff Trust Fund side, the project cycle has really been streamlined and will be further streamlined. So from the point of money coming into our trust funds, getting it out based on country demand, and hitting the on-the-ground action, it's been much more streamlined and much faster on-the-ground action. So that's what I can tell you. And as Diego, the CEO, was saying, working with Armenia has been very, very, very good with us. The vision as well as The strategy that the Armenian presidency has taken has been very, very impressive. This is a cop implementation, but if you want to implement action, you need to have resources. So this particular finance day, as well as engagement of the Armenian presidency, to be able to announce, in our view, very significant progress being made on resource mobilization, but also having additional partners to mobilize resources above and beyond the traditional donors. I think that's another very important message that we are very happy to be able to announce today. Thanks. Speaker 16 [16:49]: Any more questions? Yeah, one down the front, please, Stella. IPS · Journalist [16:53]: Hi, I'm Stella Paul from Inter Press Service. And I have two questions, both for Diego, but Robert and Tsuru can jump in. So my first question is, does the current pledging window, does it close on 30th, the window for pledging, or does it stay open well after the COP? And the second question is, so looking at how huge the need versus the pledge gap is, How hopeful are you that we can still stay on course to achieve all the targets of KMGBF by 2030, especially at the current pace of financial mobilization? Thank you. GEF · Chairperson and CEO [17:50]: Thank you for the two questions. So on the first one, I have to say that this is the first time that we've kept the window open for pledging, and this is to respond to requests to be more flexible from the donor side. So we will have hopefully one additional pledging session in the UNFCCC COP next month, but we also expect additional contributions to take place next calendar year. So the window will remain open. And as I said, this is the first time that we've done this during a replenishment cycle. And on your second question about the gap, yes, we obviously are concerned, and we've read the review report. But what we also need to highlight is that in addition to the funds that come through the GEF, and taking into account what I've mentioned about being able to mobilize additional funds, whether it's a multiplier of 8, 8.2 on average, if we take GEF aid as a baseline, or blended finance, which is about 18.5, then this 4. 4 billion that we have today are going to yield a multiple in terms of resource mobilization. But in addition to that, it's also important to understand that a lot of the donor countries, they also have significant support bilaterally. So the JEF is one of the channels, but a lot of countries, they do a significant amount of their financing on a bilateral basis. So I think that's also important to keep that in mind. Obviously, we would like to see more funds coming through the JEF because we've been a proven, trusted partner of choice for more than 149 countries. In these 30 years, we've been able to mobilize close to $160 billion with direct fund from the GEF of the order of $27 billion. And what we plan to do is to continue to increase the amount of resources that we made available to our countries. Chis, you would like to complement Robert. Speaker 19 [20:30]: James, please. So, this will be the final question from James, but thanks. EJN · Journalist [20:38]: Thank you. James Fahn from the Earth Journalism Network. Are you receiving any pledges from the USA, whether from national or subnational sources? And if so, what are they being used for? GEF · Chairperson and CEO [20:53]: Not yet. We haven't received a contribution announcement from the US yet, but I would like to say that the U.S. remains a good standing member of the JEF, and they’ve signaled that the JEF is very important for the U.S. government, and they expect to continue to be a member going forward. Speaker 22 [21:20]: Thanks, everybody. We’ll have to go now. Thanks a lot.