20 June 2012: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has launched a publication titled “From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies,” which consists of an analysis of 20 select projects that illustrate the key lessons emerging from the 20 years of work by the GEF. The publication was launched at a side event held during the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20).

The purpose of the book is to document the ongoing evolution of the GEF and its approaches to biodiversity conservation, development, sustainability, climate change mitigation and adaptation, land degradation, pollution control, and other areas of concern, by exploring in detail some of the most salient experiences of the past two decades at the GEF.

At the launch, Monique Barbut, CEO of the GEF, stressed that GEF projects reveal the increasing links between the global environment and the global economy. Edward Norton, UN Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity, cited a GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) project to replace woodfuel in Kenya, which illustrates that a small investment can have a massive impact on communities. Luc Gnacadja, UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Executive Secretary, paid tribute to the GEF for having made land degradation one of its focal areas. Christiana Figueres, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Executive Secretary, explained that the UNFCCC and the GEF have a joint steering committee to help establish the Green Climate Fund, and lamented the lack of a globally coordinated environmental movement that will engage private sector, government and civil society on carbon markets. Braulio Ferreira de Sousa Dias, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Executive Secretary, highlighted that biodiversity is an opportunity to tackle food security and climate change adaptation. [Publication: From Rio to Rio: A 20-year Journey to Green the World’s Economies] [GEF Press Release] [IISD RS ENBOTS Coverage, 20 June 2012]