With reference to Global Environment Facility, which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. It was established in 1991.
2. Only the developed countries are donors to it.
Select the correct an

Question

With reference to Global Environment Facility, which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. It was established in 1991.
2. Only the developed countries are donors to it.
Select the correct answer from the code given below :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Only 1. Statement 1 is true: the Global Environment Facility was established in October 1991, initially as a pilot programme housed in the World Bank, and was restructured after the 1992 Rio Earth Summit into a permanent, independent institution with its own governance. Statement 2 is false: the GEF is not funded only by developed countries. Its replenishments are pledged by a mixed group of contributors that includes developing countries, and India is both a donor to the Fund and a recipient of its grants. The design of its governing Council makes the same point — its seats are divided 14 to developed countries, 16 to developing countries and 2 to economies in transition, giving the recipient world a built-in majority that no donors-only club would concede. So statement 1 stands, statement 2 falls, and the answer is 'Only 1'.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) It rejects the one statement that is right and keeps the one that is wrong. 1991 is the GEF's correct year of establishment, and the claim that only developed countries fund it is untrue — developing countries, India among them, contribute to its replenishments.  (b) Half right. The year is correct, but 'only the developed countries are donors' is the kind of absolute that should always be tested: the GEF's own membership (186 countries) and its Council's 14/16/2 split show contributions and control are deliberately shared with developing countries.  (c) This throws away a correct statement. The GEF was indeed set up in 1991 — first as a World Bank pilot facility, then made permanent and independent in the wake of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.

Concept: The Global Environment Facility is the money side of the global environmental treaty system. Created in 1991 and made an independent institution after Rio 1992, it does not negotiate rules or run its own research; it channels grant and concessional finance to developing countries and economies in transition for projects on climate change, biodiversity, land degradation, chemicals and waste, and international waters. Because it holds the purse for several conventions at once, it is designated as their financial mechanism rather than being an agency of any one of them.

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