GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT FACITLITY (GEF) Kazakhstan is now a member of Switzerland's constituency group
Bern, 26.06.2003 - Switzerland's constituency in the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has a new member: Kazakhstan. At a meeting today with Kazakhstan's Environment Minister, Aitkul Samakova, in the capital city of Astana, SAEFL Director, Philippe Roch, officially welcomed Kazakhstan into the constituency. The Federal Council had voted in January for Kazakhstan to be admitted into the country grouping known as «Helvetistan». Azerbaijan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are already members of this country grouping chaired by Switzerland.
The GEF is the most important financing mechanism for the implementation of international environment agreements in the areas of climate, biodiversity, chemicals and desertification. Since its creation in 1991, the GEF has launched over 1,000 projects worldwide for the protection of the global environment with an overall investment of around USD 16 billion (of which private equity accounts for around USD 4 billion). The GEF Council sets out the fund's policy and makes decisions on investment. Switzerland with its constituency holds one of the 32 council seats and is represented by SAEFL Director, Philippe Roch.
The inclusion of Kazakhstan in the «Helvetistan» country grouping is primarily intended to bolster regional cooperation between Central Asian states on environmental issues. The region is faced with environmental problems, particularly in the fields of water and chemicals, which can have a huge global impact and cannot be solved by individual states. As the chairing constituency country, Switzerland actively seeks to promote cooperation. SAEFL, for example, provides the funding for the seminar on the management of hazardous chemicals, which the Swiss delegation in Kazakhstan is attending. Around 50 representatives from all of the states bordering on Kazakhstan are receiving training at the seminar on how to deal with hazardous chemicals. The event, which is being held in Almaty, is organised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the University of Applied Sciences of the Basel cantons.
Following today’s official admission of Kazakhstan into Switzerland’s GEF constituency, SAEFL Director, Philippe Roch, will tomorrow meet the Prime Minister of the Central Asian country, Daniyal Ahmetov during which issues of multilateral cooperation concerning the environment will be discussed.
Funding for Switzerland's financial participation in the GEF comes from the credit line for global environment, which the Swiss parliament renewed in the recently ended summer session.
Publisher
Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
https://www.bafu.admin.ch/en
