Highlights and images for 5 June 2026

“What we have seen here is not only a discussion about priorities, but a reminder of what is possible when the world comes together with shared purpose.” The closing remarks by Claude Gascon, Interim CEO of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), marked the conclusion of a busy and successful week of deliberations for the eighth GEF Assembly and the GEF Council meetings.

In the morning, Assembly participants attended roundtables focusing on:

• how the GEF can increase its resources mobilization by leveraging public official development assistance funding in the future;
• how the GEF can leverage the conventions and its family of funds to deliver on the 2030 goals;
• accelerating delivery for environmental outcomes;
• science, integration, and systems transformation;
• leaving no one behind: forging partnerships and advancing civil society, Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs), women, and youth leadership;
• investing in whole-of-government approaches and policy coherence for scale; and
• how blended finance and the private sector can bridge the finance gap.

During an afternoon plenary, delegates took note of the reports on credentials and GEF participants as well as the Chair’s report, presented by Co-Chair Shuichi Hosoda, Japan.

In a high-level plenary session, Rosina Bierbaum, Chair, Scientific and Technical Review Panel, emphasized that over 50% of global gross domestic product significantly depends on nature: “we vastly underspend on the life-support systems that underpin our economies, while we extract value from them on a daily basis.” She underscored that investing in nature is not a trade-off with development.

Kenneth Lay, Senior Managing Director, RockCreek, offered a financial market perspective, noting that the global savings pool has vast resources at its disposal. He stressed bridge building to connect asset owners with the environmental community and the need for financial models to incorporate nature degradation as a macroeconomic variable rather than as a footnote. He emphasized that “if we only run this race among ourselves, we are not going to cross the finish line,” and concluded noting that “the GEF can become the bridge that connects capital markets with the natural environment.”

In a high-level panel discussion moderated by Bierbaum and Lay, Shailendra Mishra, Global Head of Sustainability: Food, Feed and Freight, Olam Agri, suggested the GEF should look at supply chains through an integrated lens. Oliver Withers, Head of Nature Finance, Standard Chartered, discussed how to frame nature as an infrastructure issue, which can unlock private capital for nature-based solutions.

Valerie Hickey, Director for Environment, World Bank Group, urged focus on blended finance and called for increasing financial resources by looking domestically, including in private banks, national budgets, and uninvested assets. Rachel Kyte, Special Representative for Climate, UK, suggested that framing investment in nature as a security matter could unlock significant investment. Kyte urged for joint public and private investments in education, to build skills that can be applied to environmental and infrastructure transformation.

Joyelle Clarke, Minister of Sustainable Development and Environment, Climate Action and Constituency Empowerment, Saint Kitts and Nevis, called for co-design and co-building of projects with community leadership and recognizing that sustainability and empowerment go hand-in-hand.

Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary, Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions, urged the GEF to: get environment regulators to talk to each other; think on how to further incorporate circular economy and extended producer responsibility into GEF projects; and consider whether the green technologies advocated today might someday become a source of pollution.

To better promote blue carbon, Alisi Rabukawaqa, Co-Chair, Indigenous Peoples Advisory Group (IPAG), called for the GEF to: consider local stewardship, rights, and benefits; invest in what is already working; and enforce the principle of free, prior, and informed consent.

Among key messages, GEF Interim CEO Gascon stressed: the need to defend public development assistance; promote business models that reward stewardship, not extraction; and ensure the private sector is a true partner in delivering outcomes. In closing, he underscored that “the most powerful transformations occur where people can see themselves in the future being built.”

In his closing statement, eighth GEF Assembly Chair Aziz Abdukhakimov, Advisor to the President of Uzbekistan on Environment, said that the Assembly advanced the global environmental agenda, strengthened the Partnership, and built trust.

Closing the meeting, Gascon stressed the GEF was built on the understanding that no one can meet global environmental challenges alone and brings together countries, conventions, IPLCs, civil society, the private sector, and other stakeholders to deliver global environmental benefits. He urged participants to continue widening participation, deepening ownership, and ensuring those close to the challenges have the space to offer solutions.

Chair Abdukhakimov closed the meeting at 5:12 pm.