The Global Environment Facility has approved $52.3 million for six UNDP-led projects across Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America that will unlock an additional $292 million in co-financing. The projects focus on mercury elimination, forest restoration, rural electrification, and climate transparency reporting.
The largest initiative, the Global Elimination of Mercury in Non-ferrous Metals program, will work with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to help six countries cut mercury emissions by 37.48 metric tonnes. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will support India and Mexico specifically to reduce 24 metric tonnes of mercury pollution from their non-ferrous metals industries.
In Indonesia, two biodiversity projects will strengthen forest governance and protected area management. The forest planning initiative will restore 4,352 hectares of land and directly benefit 10,000 people, half of them women, through better livelihood opportunities. The protected area project will move beyond isolated conservation toward landscape-based approaches that build ecosystem resilience.
Marcos Neto, UN Assistant Secretary General and UNDP’s policy director, said the partnership with GEF shows how environmental investments protect communities while driving economic development. “Over decades, the GEF and UNDP partnership has demonstrated that long-term investments in the environment protect communities, drive stable economic development to support job creation,” he said.
A rural electrification project in Burundi will bring clean energy to more than 6,500 households through mini-grids, supporting schools and health centers while cutting about 11,527 metric tonnes of carbon emissions. The climate transparency program will help developing countries improve their climate reporting and build better transparency systems for international commitments.
