The GEF at UNFCCC COP30

Climate adaptation can’t wait. This session unites the AF, CIF, GCF, and GEF to discuss how multilateral climate funds are scaling finance for resilience – expanding access, mobilizing new capital, and coordinating efforts to amplify impact. Join us to explore what effective, inclusive, and accelerated adaptation finance looks like in practice across the world’s most vulnerable contexts.

Partners: GEF, AF, CIF, GCF
Venue: The Climate Funds Pavilion

Investing in climate resilience is both essential and full of opportunity.  Global studies value the adaptation market at over $1 trillion. The challenge is ensuring this investment reaches those most at risk – especially in least developed countries and small island states. Join us to explore how the Climate Adaptation Innovation Learning (CAIL) project is meeting that challenge by building communities of practice that unlock private investment in locally led adaptation.

Partners: Climate KIC, GARI, UNIDO, UNEP FI, GEF
Venue: The Climate Funds Pavilion

As the Global Environment Facility enters its ninth phase (GEF-9), the conversation around access, equity, and accountability in climate finance has never been more urgent. Billions are being mobilized to tackle the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, but who gets the money, and how does it reach the communities creating real impact on the ground?

This session will explore what is happening across the GEF partnership, spotlighting progress, gaps, and opportunities to reshape systems for the years ahead. Participants will share experiences on direct access, co-creation, and local leadership; and identify how GEF-9 can set a new standard for inclusive and effective finance.

The dialogue aims not just to reflect, but to drive the global conversation forward, toward a climate finance architecture that is people-centered, transparent, and transformative. One where inclusion delivers what it promises: real money, real action, and real impact.
Register here: https://luma.com/qu4wusnb

Partners: GEF CSO Network
Venue: The Climate Funds Pavilion

Fragile and conflict-affected countries face the twin crises of instability and climate vulnerability. This GEF-led session explores how climate finance can build resilience, peace, and security for communities most at risk. Join donors, practitioners, and partners to discuss barriers, share solutions, and highlight how the LDCF and SCCF are helping channel adaptation finance to those on the frontlines.

Partners: UNHCR, GEF
Venue: The Climate Funds Pavilion

Country platforms are becoming essential tools for aligning climate and development finance. This session brings together the Adaptation Fund, Climate Investment Funds, Green Climate Fund and GEF to share how they are harmonizing monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems to strengthen country ownership. Participants will explore how collaborative, programmatic approaches can generate evidence and lessons that support national priorities and accelerate transformational, country-led climate action.

Partners: AF, CIF, GCF, GEF 
Venue: The Climate Funds Pavilion

Transforming ambition into impact requires financing that works at every stage – from early readiness and project preparation to large-scale deployment. This session will explore how climate funds are expanding the toolbox for action, building market confidence, and mobilizing public-private partnerships that accelerate progress toward NDCs and long-term climate strategies. Featuring experiences from across the GEF Family of Funds and partner institutions, the event will showcase how diverse instruments and mandates complement one another – from capacity-building and piloting to scaling investment-ready projects that deliver real, lasting change.

Partners: AF, CIF, GCF, GEF 
Venue: The Climate Funds Pavilion

Indigenous peoples make up one-sixth of the world’s population and steward over 20% of the planet’s land, yet they face some of the most severe climate impacts. Despite their vital ecological knowledge, Indigenous communities often remain excluded from both international and domestic adaptation finance. This conversation explores how multilateral climate funding could change that – ensuring Indigenous peoples everywhere can access the resources needed to lead and sustain climate solutions for future generations.

Partners: National Iwi Chairs Forum, Four Directions Fund
Venue: The Climate Funds Pavilion

The Amazonia Viva initiative – developed by FUNBIO, Natura, and VERT with support from the GEF’s NGI – is pioneering blended finance to empower forest communities in Brazil. Designed to benefit over 10,000 families in the next decade, the mechanism expands access to credit, strengthens socio-biodiversity value chains, and shows how sustainable finance can turn the Amazon’s natural wealth into shared prosperity and climate resilience.

Partners: FUNBIO, GEF
Venue: The Climate Funds Pavilion

Partners: AF, CIF, GCF, GEF
Venue: The Climate Funds Pavilion

This event will bring together senior representatives of the GEF and the Government of Uzbekistan to launch their collaboration on the upcoming 8th GEF Assembly.

Partners: Government of Uzbekistan, GEF
Venue: The Climate Funds Pavilion

Youth are not a single voice in climate action – they are negotiators, Indigenous leaders, researchers, finance professionals, and community organizers shaping decisions now. This roundtable at the Climate Funds Pavilion rethinks what youth participation truly means, highlighting diverse experiences and leadership across sectors as we move toward 2030 and the shared goals of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Agenda.

Partners: Youth Negotiators Academy, YOUNGO, GEF CSO Network
Venue: The Climate Funds Pavilion

Primary forests are disappearing at record speed, threatening global climate and biodiversity goals. This GEF-led COP30 event gathers governments, Indigenous leaders, scientists, and the private sector to spotlight urgent solutions – from sustainable finance to IPLC-led stewardship – that can close the forest finance gap and safeguard the planet’s last intact forests for people, nature, and climate.

Partners: GEF
Venue: Side Event Room 4

Indigenous Peoples are the guardians of Brazil’s forests and biodiversity. The Ywy Ipuranguete Project, one of the first initiatives funded by the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), is advancing Indigenous-led conservation across 15 Indigenous Lands spanning six million hectares. With US $9 million in funding, it strengthens Indigenous governance, territorial monitoring, and sustainable livelihoods – from bio-jewelry to native fruits – protecting ecosystems, food sovereignty, and cultural heritage across Brazil’s diverse biomes.

Partners: FUNBIO, GEF