Trusting in a better future: the global environment facility

Individual countries acting alone cannot solve environmental problems that span national borders. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) was created in 1991 to serve as a mechanism for international cooperation in the funding of grants to address concerns in four areas of the global environment: biological diversity, climate change, international waters, and ozone layer depletion. To date, more than 500 projects have been funded with over $2 billion of GEF funds and another $5 billion leveraged from public and private sources, including $2 billion in matching funds from developing countries.