Cristiana Paşca Palmer, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), visited the GCF headquarters this week to hold discussions about cooperation with GCF.

Javier Manzanares, GCF Deputy Executive Director a.i., welcomed Dr Palmer, and the two delegations discussed how to strengthen the connections between action on climate change and biodiversity.

Cristiana Paşca Palmer was appointed to head CBD by the United Nations Secretary General in March 2017. She has previously served as Romania’s Minister for the Environment, and has also held senior positions within the European Commission.

The Convention on Biological Diversity is a multilateral treaty that entered into force in 1993. It supports countries in developing national strategies to conserve biodiversity. Its main objectives are the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources.

GCF is focused on climate impact, but has a strong concern with biodiversity and the ecosystem services that it provides for addressing climate change. The resilience of ecosystems and ecosystems services is one of its eight strategic results areas, whilst its investment criteria include sustainable development, encompassing environmental co-benefits such as biodiversity.

During their meeting, Mr Manzanares and Dr Palmer agreed on the need to encourage strengthened national level coordination between GCF and CBD focal points, particularly as country programming on climate action, and on ecosystems and ecosystem services develops. The two delegations also discussed complementarity between National Adaptation Plans and other adaptation planning processes (supported by GCF as part of its Readiness Support Programme), and the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) undertaken under the provisions of the CBD.

The two organisations will follow-up this initial exchange with more detailed plans for cooperation in the coming months, including exploring collaboration around GCF’s regional structured dialogue meetings and the CBD’s BioBridge Initiative which was launched earlier today South Korea.