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1 Global Environment Facility (GEF) The GEF approved the sixth replenishment of its Trust Fund (GEF-6) for a total of US $4.4 billion, pledged by thirty-one donor countries to finance environment-related projects during the period The GEF also held two meetings of its Governing Council as well as one meeting of its full membership during the fifth GEF Assembly, which was held in Cancun, Mexico. In 2014, the GEF Council adopted a GEF 2020 Strategy to define how the funding from GEF-6 will be invested as well as criteria for the transparent allocation of resources. They also discussed co-financing requirements and the annual performance report from 2013 that gives account of 646 completed projects. GEF Council meetings were held in conjunction with meetings of the Council of the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) and Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), two funds created under the aegis of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which share the same governance structure with the GEF. Consultations with civil society organizations were also held prior to each of the GEF Council meetings. The GEF is a funding facility governed by 183 member countries and managed by the GEF Council working as a board of directors with thirtytwo seats, each representing a constituency of different countries. The GEF itself does not implement projects but channels funding sources to agencies that are part of the GEF Partnership, with the World Bank acting as trustee. The GEF Partnership includes ten UN agencies as well as multilateral development banks and international non-governmental organizations, such as the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International. In 2014, two new agencies were incorporated to the GEF Partnership, the Development Bank of South Africa, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The GEF serves as financial mechanism for the following conventions: the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UNFCCC, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), and the Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa, and the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The GEF also administers the Nagoya Protocol Implementation Fund and hosts the Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat. This report will provide an overview of the main issues addressed in 2014 by the GEF, namely the GEF Assembly, the sixth GEF Replenishment, the approval of new projects, the new GEF Strategy, the independent evaluation report, the accreditation of new GEF project agencies and new pilots for integrated approaches (based on the Joint Summary of the Chairs and Highlights of the GEF Council Meeting documents for the 46th and 47th Council Meetings, which

2 REPORTS ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND BODIES 539 are available at < and GEF meeting summaries by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, which are available at < and council47/>). (1) Sixth GEF Replenishment and Long-Term Strategy for the GEF 2020 The GEF Trust Fund is the main source of GEF funding and is replenished by donors every four years. The forty-sixth Council welcomed the conclusion of the sixth GEF Replenishment and endorsed the decisions prepared by the replenishment negotiating group on programming directions, allocations of resources, and policy recommendations. The results were announced to the GEF Assembly, which also adopted the GEF Strategy The GEF Strategy 2020 aims to strengthen the focused approach of GEF funding, to position this institution within the wider environmental finance context, as a mechanism with a focus on demonstrating new approaches, and to guide the GEF network going forward. The strategy focuses on five priorities: drivers of environmental degradation, delivering integrated solutions to environmental challenges, enhancing climate resilience and adaptation, ensuring complementarity and synergies in climate finance, and working with beneficiary countries to transform policy and regulatory environments and strengthen institutional capacities and decision-making processes. (2) Fifth GEF Assembly The fifth GEF Assembly was held in Cancun, Mexico, on May. Among other decisions, the Assembly amended the Instrument for the Establishment of the Restructured Global Environment Facility to: replace the focal area on ozone-depleting substances and persistent organic pollutants with a single chemicals and waste focal area; update eligibility criteria; and to add the Minamata Convention on Mercury to the list of multilateral environmental agreements for which the GEF acts as financial mechanisms. The independent evaluation office was also incorporated as a GEF body. Six roundtables were held during the GEF Assembly, on financing green growth, mainstreaming natural capital into decision making, the role of legislation in protecting the global environment, sustainable and resilient cities, the nexus of energy, water, and food security, sustainable communities, and a forward-looking agenda on multilateral environmental agreements and the post-2015 framework. Prior to the Assembly, a Civil Society Organizations Forum took place on 27 May and presented its results to the GEF Assembly, encouraging participation of civil society organizations early in the project cycle and highlighting the need to mainstream gender and youth participation into the work of the GEF.

3 540 (3) GEF Projects Approved in 2014 During its forty-sixth meeting, the GEF Council approved projects for a total of US $ million and, during its forty-seventh meeting, projects for a total of US $ million. The projects approved include the following main topics for funding. With respect to chemicals, projects will reduce persistent organic pollutants in China and Colombia. On climate change, a global project will support the preparation of biennial update reports and national communications to the UNFCCC by developing countries. National projects will deal with technology transfer for climate change in Ukraine, accelerate sustainable energy for all progress in Lesotho, and promote low carbon urban transport systems in the Philippines. Projects on renewable energy were approved for sustainable charcoal production in Angola, bio-gas production for organic municipal solid waste in Argentina, fuel cell vehicles and upgrading of Chinas s solar heating power capacity, bio-gas in South Africa, use of solid bio-fuel in Thailand, and solar photovoltaic energy in forest villages in Turkey. Projects on energy efficiency were adopted for Algeria and on energy efficiency in the social housing sector for Trinidad and Tobago. With respect to international waters, projects sought to promote integrated water resource management in shared watercourses, such as the Jura River Basin in Azerbaijan and Georgia, the Titicaca-Desaguadero-Poopo-Salar de Coipasa system in Bolivia and Peru, the Volta River Basin in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Benin, Cote d Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Togo) as well as for the large marine ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico and for ocean and marine resources in Angola, Namibia, and South Africa. A global learning exchange and resources network will also be supported as well as integrated transboundary ridges-to-reef management in the meso-american reef and mainstreaming integrated water and environment management in China and a strategic action program for the South China Sea. With respect to biodiversity, projects addressed protected areas, genetic resources, and biosafety. Regarding protected areas, a global project was approved to scale up the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. Projects were also approved to consolidate Colombia s protected areas system, to protect ecosystem services in the wetlands of El Salvador, and to manage and conserve steppe ecosystems in Turkey. Regarding the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Utilization (Nagoya Protocol), a global project was approved to strengthen human resources and institutional capacities for its implementation as well as a project to strengthen capacities for access and benefit sharing under the Nagoya Protocol in Brazil and Mexico. On biosafety, a global project will build capacity for participation in the biosafety clearing-house, a regional project will test living modified organisms

4 REPORTS ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND BODIES 541 in African countries, and a national project will support the implementation of Sri Lanka s national biosafety framework. A global project was also approved to mainstream biodiversity information in government decision making and to mainstream biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in fisheries practices in Indonesia. Regarding multi-focal area projects, the GEF approved a new installment of its small grants program and payment for ecosystem services in Mozambique. It also approved multi-focal area projects related to oceans and seas, including an action program for the Arafura and Timor Seas and a regional oceanscape program for the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu. Agro-biodiversity projects include projects for the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity in Azerbaijan, increased rural climate resilience in the Niger Basin, forestry development in Belarus, and sustainable forest and land management in Laos, as well as conservation and sustainable use of ecosystems for snow leopard protection in Tajikistan. The GEF also supported a climatesmart agriculture fund for the Americas. Projects related to forests and other ecosystems include sustainable management of forest ecosystems in Amazonia by local communities in Bolivia, sustainable biomass energy generation in Benin, sustainable management of peatland ecosystems in Indonesia, and sustainable fuel wood management in Nigeria. On land degradation, projects were approved regarding participatory assessment of land degradation and sustainable land management in grassland and pastoral systems. (4) Independent Evaluation Report The fifth Overall Performance Study of the GEF evaluated the results of the fifth replenishment cycle and concluded, among other issues, that the GEF had accomplished good performance in achieving its mandate and objectives, while qualifying its delivery model as slow and inefficient. The report recommends new strategies to improve the GEF s business model and a wider focus on programmatic approaches rather than on individual projects. (5) Expansion of the GEF Partnership The forty-sixth Council approved the designation as GEF agencies of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the IUCN, both of which had progressed from Stage 2 to Stage 3 in the accreditation process. The Council thus approved the following initial grant ceilings for these institutions: (1) individual project ceilings for a GEF grant: US $27.4 million for the IUCN and US $206.6 million for the DBSA and (2) total project ceilings: US $75.8 million for the IUCN and US $360 million for the DBSA. The Council s forty-seventh meeting also took note that FUNBIO was approved by the Accreditation

5 542 Panel to progress to the final stage of the accreditation process to become a GEF Project Agency. (6) Integrated Approach Pilots At the forty-seventh Council meeting, the Secretariat presented the progress in the preparation of pilot projects on integrated approaches that aim at addressing environmental challenges by focusing on drivers of environmental degradation. In particular, three pilot projects are being developed to be presented for approval in June 2015: (1) taking deforestation out of the commodities supply chain; (2) food security in Sub-Saharan Africa; and (3) sustainable cities. (7) Next Meetings During 2015, the GEF Council will hold its regular biannual meetings in Washington, DC, as well as the meetings of the LDCF and SCCF Council and meetings with civil society organizations. Soledad Aguilar doi: /yiel/yvv International Law Commission (ILC) This year at its sixty-sixth session the ILC discussed two topics relating to international environmental law, one on the protection of the atmosphere and the other on the protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts. (1) Protection of the Atmosphere (Shinya Murase, Special Rapporteur) The topic was included in its current program of work at its sixty-fifth session in 2013 (UNGA Doc. A/68/10, para. 168). The first report submitted by the special rapporteur in February discussed the rationale for pursuing the project as well as the basic approaches to the topic (UNGA Doc. A/CN.4/667, paras 10 19), followed by a brief historical analysis of the evolution of international law relating to the protection of the atmosphere (ibid., paras ). The report then provided a comprehensive (but not necessarily exhaustive) account of the major sources of law, including treaty practice, jurisprudence of international courts and tribunals, customary international law, non-binding instruments, domestic legislation, and domestic court cases (ibid., paras 29 63). Finally, the special rapporteur proposed three draft guidelines: Draft Guideline 1 on the Definition of the Atmosphere, Draft Guideline 2 on the Scope, and Draft Guideline 3 on the Legal Status of the Atmosphere.