It's Not Easy Being Green!

Now I’ve got your attention, I must confess that this post is not about Kermit the Frog (although I’m sure he would appreciate efforts to make the world green)!

As part of ongoing cataloguing work, we have been working on papers relating to the Global Environment Facility.

Established in 1991, the GEF exists to help protect the environment and promote sustainable development on the international stage.

It does this by providing funding for environment related projects developed by individual countries, and which projects might be scaled up to have international benefits.

The GEF's main areas of work focus on biodiversity, climate change, chemicals and waste, land degradation, international waters, sustainable management of forest and REDD+.

Work also cuts across food security, sustainable cities, commodities, public private partnerships, capacity development, the small grants programme, gender main-streaming, small-island developing states, and indigenous peoples.

Timeline showing the development of GEF

In the late 1990s Hull University researcher Zoe Young undertook a study on the politics of implementing the GEF. The research was funded by the UK's Economic and Social Research Council, and was undertaken in the Geography Department in conjunction with the Science Policy Research Unit.

The papers contain files on various GEF-related subjects including the Conference of the Parties, United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Environmental Defence Fund, Small Grants Programme, NGO Consultation Participants Assembly 1998, Incremental Costs, The World Bank, and Rio+10/World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Papers also relate to administration of the GEF and include files on subjects including Council Meetings, Monitoring and Evaluation, Annual Reports, Projects, Restructure, Replenishment and Revision, STAP, Operational Reports, Working Papers, Official Statements, and Discussion/Draft Papers.

Further files relate to the research of Zoe Young, publications and articles, and critiques.

Anyone interested in the following themes might find these papers helpful:
• The Global Environment Facility, it’s structure, function and politics of operation
• International environmental policy
• Funding of international projects
• The rise of globalisation in the NGO and development sector
• Environmental research in the 1990s

The papers are now fully catalogued and are available to access at the History Centre. You can find the catalogue descriptions online via the History Centre website where you can also download a PDF copy of the full catalogue.

Claire Weatherall, Assistant Archivist (HUA)