Evaluation Office so important. If we are to successfully implement the landmark
2015 global agreements to put the world on a low-emission, climate-resilient, and
sustainable trajectory it is an imperative to embrace evidence-based learning and
monitoring and evaluation as an integral aspect of implementation, so that our
approaches and priorities can be refined and optimized even when we are already on
the road.
A few lessons are already emerging. First, we need to rapidly break down the
sectoral walls that isolate the environment from economics – at the international
and national scales – so as to start mainstreaming environmental considerations in
the wider decision-making process. Second, we must bring the various lines of
funding the GEF provides countries much closer together, making the best use
possible of their interlinkages and addressing the systemic nature of the threats.
Finally, we must move from just addressing the symptoms of environmental
degradation – given we are running out of fingers to stick in the progressively
more porous proverbial dyke – and start tackling the key drivers of environmental
degradation.
Climate change is arguably one of the most complex of the global environmental
phenomena, with its root causes ingrained across almost all sectors and industries.
Agriculture, for instance, accounts for a significant share of global greenhouse gas
emissions, including through methane emissions from livestock, nitrous oxide from
fertilizer use, and land use change. Cattle, palm oil, and rice together contribute
approximately half of all food production-related greenhouse gas emissions, requiring solution approaches that take into account the linkages between these individual
emission sources. Learning from our past agriculture projects will help us tackle
these emission sources at the systemic level.
Against this background, we also have to address the fact we are already locked
in a path towards a warmer world irrespective of what we may do today. The Paris
Agreement has embraced the utmost priority of promoting greater resilience in the
ways we conduct our business and daily lives. This will be particularly important
for the poorest and most vulnerable countries. We are confident we can also build
our future work on the significant portfolio of climate adaptation work that has
accumulated important lessons over the past decade – meaning promoting and
replicating approaches that are most effective in helping communities adapt to
droughts, sea level rise, and changing seasonal weather patterns.
This book could not come at a better time. We need to make choices that direct
our limited resources to their best use on the ground – so as to most effectively help
countries fulfill their commitments to achieving the goals and objectives of the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Evaluations and lessons learned from
past projects and programs must be considered by all stakeholders involved, to
enable informed decision-making to do justice to the urgency of the problems at
hand. The efforts of the Independent Evaluation Office of the GEF to produce
useful, concrete. and practical lessons, exemplified in this book and through the
vi
Foreword
2015 global agreements to put the world on a low-emission, climate-resilient, and
sustainable trajectory it is an imperative to embrace evidence-based learning and
monitoring and evaluation as an integral aspect of implementation, so that our
approaches and priorities can be refined and optimized even when we are already on
the road.
A few lessons are already emerging. First, we need to rapidly break down the
sectoral walls that isolate the environment from economics – at the international
and national scales – so as to start mainstreaming environmental considerations in
the wider decision-making process. Second, we must bring the various lines of
funding the GEF provides countries much closer together, making the best use
possible of their interlinkages and addressing the systemic nature of the threats.
Finally, we must move from just addressing the symptoms of environmental
degradation – given we are running out of fingers to stick in the progressively
more porous proverbial dyke – and start tackling the key drivers of environmental
degradation.
Climate change is arguably one of the most complex of the global environmental
phenomena, with its root causes ingrained across almost all sectors and industries.
Agriculture, for instance, accounts for a significant share of global greenhouse gas
emissions, including through methane emissions from livestock, nitrous oxide from
fertilizer use, and land use change. Cattle, palm oil, and rice together contribute
approximately half of all food production-related greenhouse gas emissions, requiring solution approaches that take into account the linkages between these individual
emission sources. Learning from our past agriculture projects will help us tackle
these emission sources at the systemic level.
Against this background, we also have to address the fact we are already locked
in a path towards a warmer world irrespective of what we may do today. The Paris
Agreement has embraced the utmost priority of promoting greater resilience in the
ways we conduct our business and daily lives. This will be particularly important
for the poorest and most vulnerable countries. We are confident we can also build
our future work on the significant portfolio of climate adaptation work that has
accumulated important lessons over the past decade – meaning promoting and
replicating approaches that are most effective in helping communities adapt to
droughts, sea level rise, and changing seasonal weather patterns.
This book could not come at a better time. We need to make choices that direct
our limited resources to their best use on the ground – so as to most effectively help
countries fulfill their commitments to achieving the goals and objectives of the
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Evaluations and lessons learned from
past projects and programs must be considered by all stakeholders involved, to
enable informed decision-making to do justice to the urgency of the problems at
hand. The efforts of the Independent Evaluation Office of the GEF to produce
useful, concrete. and practical lessons, exemplified in this book and through the
vi
Foreword