Roundtable "Bilateral and Multilateral Mechanisms of the fight against Climate Change in Developing Countries"

On July 13th, 2010 a roundtable on the bilateral and multilateral mechanism of the fight against climate change in developing countries was organized by Sloga. The roundtable was opened by Monique Barbut, Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). GEF is an independent international financial organization, that provides grants to developing countries and countries with economies in transition for projects related to environmental issues.

Monique Barbut highlighted the special nature of GEF and its way of financing huge projects that are worth more than 1 billion dollars as well as small projects implemented by smaller NGOs. The financial crisis will affect the functioning of GEF, but despite this fact, donors, including Slovenia, have raised their contribution to GEF. The Panelists agreed that multilateral agencies play an important role in fighting against climate change but at the same time we cannot forget activities of NGOs and other bilateral actors with their effective impact in preventing further negative causes of climate change. Panelists also highlighted the importance of new and additional sources dedicated to climate change in developing countries.

Information provided by Janja Mikulan, Sloga