*Please note that due to a late start in the event, please move the cursor foward to minute 35*

The largest funder of biodiversity and climate change related projects, the Global Environmental Facility was created to assist developing countries to meet obligations under global environmental agreements initiated at the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, including the (U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS). The GEF is the largest funder of projects in developing countries to protect the global environment. Since 1991, the GEF has provided $11.5 billion in grants to 3,215 projects in 165 countries, leveraging an additional $57 billion in co-financing.

Dr. Naoko Ishii, who was appointed as the new GEF CEO and Chairperson over the summer, will share her thoughts on where the GEF is headed under her leadership. Before taking over the GEF, Dr. Ishii was Japan’s Deputy Vice Minister of Finance and the Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister for Global Environmental Finance. Dr. Ishii will bring new ideas and approaches to international development. 

The “Managing the Planet” seminar series – developed jointly by George Mason University and the Wilson Center’s Brazil Institute and Environmental Change and Security Program – addresses planetary-scale problems and solutions.