$372 million new effort announced by Carlos Manuel Rodriguez to address biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution

Carlos Manuel Rodriguez helmed Global Environment Facility has approved more than 372 million dollars for 36 new programs and projects addressing biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution in 59 countries, including 21 Small Island Developing States and 21 Least Developed Countries.

The package spans the GEF Trust Fund, the Least Developed Countries Fund, the Special Climate Change Fund, and the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, with allocations of 291 million, 49 million, 3 million, and 29 million dollars respectively.

The initiatives are designed to safeguard and restore critical ecosystems, curb greenhouse gas emissions, tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, protect marine habitats, reduce mercury and persistent organic pollutants, and advance regenerative agriculture and landscape restoration.

Civil society organizations, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities are highlighted as central partners in implementation, particularly through Global Biodiversity Framework Fund programming that emphasizes community stewardship, sustainable livelihoods, and rights-based approaches.

According to recent monitoring, GEF-supported efforts over the past four years have mitigated more than one billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, conserved and sustainably managed about 118 million hectares of protected terrestrial areas, placed 15 million hectares under restoration, brought 44 million hectares of production landscapes under sustainable management, and eliminated 60,000 tonnes of chemicals of global concern.

These results are backed by strong leveraging of finance, with projects approved since July 2022 expected to mobilize 8.50 dollars in co‑finance for every GEF dollar, including 8.1 billion dollars from private sources, and blended operations projected to reach a 19‑to‑1 co‑financing ratio.

The Council meetings also marked a leadership transition, as Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson Carlos Manuel Rodríguez stepped down from his role with immediate effect after steering the institution through a period of record delivery and modernization. The Council appointed Claude Gascon, the GEF’s Director of Strategy and Operations and a long‑time conservation leader, as interim CEO while a search is undertaken for a permanent successor to guide the organization into its next replenishment period.

In parallel, key donor governments moved to reinforce the adaptation window of the GEF partnership, with Belgium, Germany, Ireland, and Sweden announcing nearly 39 million dollars in new pledges to the Least Developed Countries Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund. Representatives of the GEF’s 186 member countries now turn to the next negotiation round for the ninth replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund, scheduled for January 19–20 in Bonn, which will shape the GEF‑9 cycle starting in July 2026 and feeding into decisions at the Eighth GEF Assembly in Uzbekistan in June 2026.

Carlos Manuel Rodriguez was selected as CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility in June 2020.

Rodriguez, a Costa Rican national, was a pioneer in the development of Payment for Ecosystem Services and strategies for forest restoration, ocean conservation, and decarbonization.

During his three terms as Environment and Energy Minister, Costa Rica doubled the size of its forests, made its electric sector fully renewable, and consolidated a national park system that has made the Central American country a prime ecotourism destination.

Rodriguez has also founded and served on the board of several environmental NGOs and tropical research institutes. After his second tenure as minister, he was Vice President for Global Policy at Conservation International for 12 years.