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➤ a partnership approach to tackling environmental problems, and it is critical that the private sector, including industry, be an integral player in that partnership, along with international organizations, nations, and civil society. Comprehensive engagement with industry is a vital part of the GEF’s long-term strategic effort, GEF2020, and the next four-year funding cycle, GEF-6, which got under way in July 2014. Only with the participation of the private sector can we place an accurate value on natural capital, and fully incorporate that value into the way decisions are made and progress is measured. We intend to use the convening power of the GEF, in concert with our partners, to ensure that all key actors – from local communities to national governments, the private sector, civil society organizations, and indigenous peoples – recognize the part they must play in finding and implementing solutions. Much of what we do in support of bettering the global environment involves interaction with industry, whether the tuna fishery or chemical production plants or appliance manufacturers, or mining concerns, or agribusinesses. The GEF’s primary responsibility is to support efforts under treaties to address climate change, biodiversity, forests, land degradation, desertification, chemical pollutants, and international waters. We are also financing projects under the new Minamata Treaty on Mercury, opened for signature in Japan in the fall of 2013. Our climate change programmes include engagement with producers of renewable energy systems and energy-efficient lights and appliances.
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Our biodiversity and international waters efforts have engaged the fishing and forestry industries in collaborative efforts. We have seen dramatic progress through the work we do with partner institutions with private industry in reducing the use of persistent organic pollutants. And a key focus of our land degradation work is to ensure that the agriculture industry, particularly in climatevulnerable regions, can provide secure food supplies for growing populations. During GEF-6, which has just been strongly endorsed with US$4.43bn in pledges from 30 donor countries, we will be implementing new “Integrated Approaches” to addressing environmental challenges, including a project aimed at addressing the environmental pressures created by the global trend toward urbanization. The Sustainable Cities Integrated Approach will involve GEF engagement with local governments, civil society, and private industry to identify ways to manage the urbanization trend in a sustainable way. China will be the focus one of the first Sustainable Cities projects. A new World Bank Group study on China urbanization emphasizes the importance of addressing the environmental consequences of urbanization through the use of marketbased tools such as taxes and trading systems for carbon, air and water pollution, and energy. GEF will be integrally involved in developing and supporting these strategies. Local, national, regional, and international institutions should work to strengthen engagement with the private sector because the private sector has the
capital, institutional knowledge, technical expertise, and implementation experience to make sustainable development a reality. Through a cohesive institutional strategy on private sector engagement the world can magnify its impact by redirecting and increasing the volume of private investment flowing toward sustainable activities. The GEF has developed a number of ongoing initiatives in the industrial sector geared toward achieving environmental benefits and sustainability. In China, the GEF has provided funds to reduce the risk involved in large volume International Finance Corporation (IFC) loanguarantees to help unlock lending for energy efficiency projects from commercial banks in China. GEF involvement has served as a catalyst resulting in replication of an effective energy efficiency lending model across the country. Through the en.lighten program, the GEF is effectively working with private sector partners across 55 developing countries to improve the energy efficiency of public, residential, commercial, and industrial lighting. The Global Efficient Lighting Partnership Programme, or en.lighten, is enabling participating countries to save a combined US$7.5bn and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 35 metric tons per year. Through the Global Cleantech programme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), GEF is helping entrepreneurs who nurse and hatch innovative ideas on clean technologies such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, and water and waste management, in participating countries, namely Armenia, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa and