Lesley Wroughton, PlanetArk 13 May 10;
Donor countries on Wednesday pledged a record $4.25 billion over the next four years for the Global Environment Facility, the world's largest public green fund that helps developing countries tackle climate change.
The commitments are a 52 percent increase in new resources for the GEF made by 30 countries at a pledging session in Paris, the group said in a statement.
GEF Chief Executive Monique Barbut said the replenishment of funds is the first "tangible confirmation of financial commitments" made during international climate talks in Copenhagen in December.
In Copenhagen, negotiators from developed and developing nations tried to settle on the basic terms of a new global climate agreement in the lead-up to the next summit in Mexico in December.
Part of that agreement was aimed at providing financing to developing countries to help them adapt to a changing climate. Some of those funds will be directed through the GEF into projects implemented by U.N. agencies and development institutions like the World Bank.
Barbut said about $1.35 billion of the funds committed on Wednesday would be directed at tackling climate change.
The rest will be directed at better management of protected areas and endangered areas, improving cooperation on trans-boundary water systems management, reducing pollutants in land and water, and expanding and protecting the world's forests.
The new funds are "testimony to the international donor community's commitment to the environmental agenda," said Axel van Trotsenburg, the World Bank's vice president for concessional finance and global partnerships.
The GEF has been replenished four times since its inception in 1991 starting with $2.02 billion in 1994, $2.75 billion in 1998, $2.92 billion in 2002 and $3.13 billion in 2006.
To date, the GEF has provided $8.7 billion in grants for more than 2,400 environmental projects in over 165 developing countries and emerging economies.
(Editing by Kenneth Barry)
