Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment

The Sixth Assembly of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) will take place from June 27-28, 2018 at the Furama International Conference Center in Da Nang, Vietnam. This assembly was set up to tackle the planet’s most pressing environmental problems.

Sixth GEF Assembly to be held in Da Nang

Held every four years, the GEF Assembly brings together environment ministers and other senior officials from its 183 member countries, along with heads of UN agencies, regional development backs, civil society organizations and business leaders to share ideas, solutions and actions needed to protect the global environment.

“A clear majority of donors have stepped up their support for the GEF, signaling the urgency of the global environmental agenda, and trust in the GEF to help tackle the problem and achieve even greater results,” said Naoko Ishii, GEF CEO and Chairperson.

Last month, close to 30 countries jointly pledged $4.1 billion to the GEF for its new four-year investment cycle, (known as GEF-7), to better protect the future of the planet and its inhabitants.

With the health of the global environment worsening, the GEF received strong support in its efforts to help safeguard the world’s forests, land, water, climate, and oceans in order to build green cities, protect threatened wildlife, and tackle new environmental threats like marine plastic pollution.

These issues and more will be on the agenda of the GEF Assembly.

The GEF Assembly, with all sessions open to the media unless otherwise indicated, will include statements from current and former heads of state, expert presentations and a series of interactive roundtables on the new themes of GEF-7.

The opening plenary sessions on June 27 will cover the state of the global environment, the ambition needed to help transform the systems that support how we live, how we eat, how we move, how we produce and consume, and how implementation of GEF-7 can contribute to the necessary systems change.

Fourteen interactive high-level round tables will dig deeper into new themes in GEF-7 and other global environment issues. Each round table will feature well-known speakers and interventions from ministers, to discuss the challenge, what needs to be done, and how the GEF and others can address the problem.

The GEF Assembly will be preceded by the 54th GEF Council Meeting on June 24-26 and the 24th Least Developed Countries Fund/Special Climate Change Fund Council Meeting and a Civil Society Forum on June 26. There is an opportunity to visit GEF projects surrounding Da Nang on June 29. The week will also feature numerous side events and exhibitions.