Foreword
In 2015, the world achieved several crucial milestones for safeguarding the global
commons. Most prominently were the adoption of the Sustainable Development
Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. These agreements clearly
recognize that the health of the global commons, like land, forests, oceans, and
climate, is vital for our future development prospects – a recognition that was
embedded in the very creation of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) 25 years
ago. It is very timely to reflect on what we have achieved, what is still to be done,
and how we can scale up our efforts in helping countries along the way to
implementing these agreements.
Thanks to all the support we received from donor countries, partners, and other
stakeholders, the GEF was able to invest over US$14 billion in grants and mobilized over US$74 billion in additional financing for over 4,000 projects in developing countries. Still, the key drivers of environmental degradation continue to
intensify with a growing, and more affluent, global population and rapid urbanization, driving increased demand for food, fiber and materials. The associated pressures on forests, land, and oceans are increasingly being exacerbated by climate
change, thereby threatening biodiversity and Earth’s life support systems. If we are
to succeed at the scale the problem deserves, we need to change key economic
systems – how we produce food; our cities; how we live and move around; and our
energy system, how we power our vehicles, industries, and homes. In a nutshell, we
have our work cut out for ourselves as never before.
Fortunately, we are not flying in the dark. The GEF stands today on top of a
quarter-century of experience dealing with the global environment and the stewardship of the global commons. This body of work offers a tremendous opportunity
to learn – both from our successes and our failures. This is what makes the
continuous, uninterrupted evaluation and assessments by GEF’s Independent
v
In 2015, the world achieved several crucial milestones for safeguarding the global
commons. Most prominently were the adoption of the Sustainable Development
Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. These agreements clearly
recognize that the health of the global commons, like land, forests, oceans, and
climate, is vital for our future development prospects – a recognition that was
embedded in the very creation of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) 25 years
ago. It is very timely to reflect on what we have achieved, what is still to be done,
and how we can scale up our efforts in helping countries along the way to
implementing these agreements.
Thanks to all the support we received from donor countries, partners, and other
stakeholders, the GEF was able to invest over US$14 billion in grants and mobilized over US$74 billion in additional financing for over 4,000 projects in developing countries. Still, the key drivers of environmental degradation continue to
intensify with a growing, and more affluent, global population and rapid urbanization, driving increased demand for food, fiber and materials. The associated pressures on forests, land, and oceans are increasingly being exacerbated by climate
change, thereby threatening biodiversity and Earth’s life support systems. If we are
to succeed at the scale the problem deserves, we need to change key economic
systems – how we produce food; our cities; how we live and move around; and our
energy system, how we power our vehicles, industries, and homes. In a nutshell, we
have our work cut out for ourselves as never before.
Fortunately, we are not flying in the dark. The GEF stands today on top of a
quarter-century of experience dealing with the global environment and the stewardship of the global commons. This body of work offers a tremendous opportunity
to learn – both from our successes and our failures. This is what makes the
continuous, uninterrupted evaluation and assessments by GEF’s Independent
v