The United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank are the initial implementing agencies of the Global Environment Facility.
1994 During the Rio Summit, the Global Environment Facility was reorganized, separated from the World Bank and became an independent permanent institution. The decision to turn the Global Environment Facility into an independent agency has strengthened the participation of developing countries in decision-making and project implementation. However, since 1994, the World Bank has been the custodian of the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund and provided management services for it.
As part of the restructuring, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was entrusted as the financial mechanism of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Multilateral Fund under the Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer complement each other and provide financial support for projects in the Russian Federation and some countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to phase out the use of ozone-depleting chemicals.
Subsequently, the Global Environment Facility was selected as the financial mechanism of the other three international conventions. They are: Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (200 1), United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (2003) and Minamata Convention on Mercury (20 13).