VANCOUVER – A UNIDO delegation led by Director General Gerd Müller is taking part in the Seventh Global Environment Facility (GEF) Assembly between 22 and 26 August in Vancouver, Canada. The Assembly marks the transition to the GEF-8 funding cycle - with record US$5.33bn in donor pledges - and brings together environmental leaders from the GEF’s 185 member countries.

The GEF Assembly will be a critical stocktaking exercise for 2030 goals of ending pollution and nature loss, combatting climate change, and propelling inclusive, locally led biodiversity conservation.

UNIDO Director General Gerd Müller will join the GEF CEO and Chairperson, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, government ministers and private sector representatives during the high-level Plenary 2 and Roundtable 9 sessions. UNIDO and the GEF will discuss ways to partner with the private sector in unlocking additional streams of financing and stimulating transformative changes in key bio-economy-driven and hard-to-abate industrial sectors.

UNIDO and its partners will host five side events on key priority areas that are central to the UNIDO-GEF Cooperation:

• Best practices in empowering women and gender mainstreaming in GEF projects (in partnership with the GEF Gender Partnership and others)
• Driving a Just Hydrogen Transition: Key Enablers for Clean Hydrogen Uptake and De-risking of Investments (in partnership with the World Bank Group)
• Engagement of Industry in the Global Biodiversity Framework (in partnership with the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat)
• Accelerating innovation and private investment in climate adaptation (in partnership with the GEF Secretariat)
• Harnessing the power of cleantech ecosystems to tackle the complex challenge of climate change (in partnership with the GEF Secretariat)

UNIDO is also looking forward to welcoming Assembly delegates in the UNIDO exhibition space and the GEF Partnership Pavilion where UNIDO is proud to unite with leading environmental organizations. Visiting the UNIDO exhibition will provide national decision-makers with an opportunity to identify areas of cooperation with UNIDO under the GEF-8.

Over the decades, the GEF has provided UNIDO with over US$1bn in grants to support more than 400 project in over 100 countries, covering a variety of environmental and industrial development issues. The UNIDO-GEF alliance helps countries achieve  global environmental benefits across all GEF focal areas.