What Is GEF Blended Finance?
At the Global Environment Facility, blended finance works to attract private capital for environmental initiatives that require additional sources of funding. With loans, equity, guarantees, contingent and performance-based instruments, GEF blended finance structures—which we also refer to as non-grant instruments (NGI)—aim to reduce risks for private investors so that environmental projects become bankable.
Our focus is deliberately on mobilizing private capital in environmental “frontier” markets, where no proven business model exists. By providing catalytic, concessional capital, we create the conditions for private finance to follow.
The ninth replenishment period (GEF-9, 2026-2030) aims to direct 25 percent of GEF Trust Fund programming towards private capital mobilization through blended finance structures.
Why We Utilize Blended Finance
Our mandate is to generate global environmental benefits measured though core indicators to conserve biodiversity, stabilize the climate, safeguard international waters, halt land degradation, and reduce chemical and waste pollution. These global environmental benefits are public goods and economic “externalities” that financial markets systematically underfund. Blended finance helps close the financial gap, pairing donors’ catalytic concessional capital with private investment to leverage investment at a scale that public funding alone cannot achieve, and supporting nature-positive transformation of markets and production systems.
Our Approach
Looking ahead, the GEF's blended finance will push deeper into frontier areas in environmental finance, weaving together the family of funds and all five focal areas of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, land degradation, international waters, and chemicals and waste to maximize lasting environmental impact.
Financial flexibility and long tenors will remain our cornerstone: pioneering innovative, first-of-a-kind financial structures while designing them to be replicable and scalable.
Supporting grants will build pipelines of bankable projects to empower micro, small, and medium enterprises as engines of a truly inclusive and nature-positive economy.
Portfolio Overview
From climate change to biodiversity and land restoration, the GEF has steadily expanded its environmental focus over 30 years, with a breadth of diverse projects across sectors, financial structures, and economies.
Blended finance projects can achieve higher co-financing ratios, attracting private capital into high impact and innovative environmental projects. From GEF-6 to GEF-8, cumulative GEF investment in NGI reached $369.5 million with $6.4 billion in total co-financing (a ratio of 1:17), with over half ($3.5 billion) from the private sector, which is more than double in relation to the average co-financing ratio for the overall GEF portfolio.
Sovereign Cases
Private Sector Energy Efficiency Programme Phase 2
Country: South Africa
Focal Area: Climate Change Mitigation
Type: Guarantee
Agency: DBSA
GEF Product: First Loss Guarantee | $16M
Leverage: 1:16 | $261M
Goal: Bridge the financing gap for small and medium enterprises seeking to implement energy efficiency programs that reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint.
Global Environmental Benefits:
- Indicator 6 - Greenhouse gas emissions mitigated: 40.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent
- Indicator 11 - Number of direct beneficiaries : 20,592 female; 48,048 male
Debt For Nature Debt Restructuring
Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
Focal Area: Biodiversity
Type: Guarantee
Agency: IDB
GEF Product: Convertible Guarantee* | $44M
Leverage: 1:15 | $641M
Goal: Establish a regional facility to support biodiversity conservation and restoration in at
least three LAC countries through debt-for-nature conversions.
Global Environmental Benefits:
- Ind. 1 Terrestrial Protected Areas: 487,397 hectares
- Ind. 2 Marine Protected Areas: 27,918,570 hectares
- Ind. 3 Area of land of ecosystems under restoration: 187,500 hectares
- Ind. 5 Area of marine habit under improved practices: 9,266,500 hectares
- Ind. 11 Number of direct beneficiaries: 271,005 female; 273,525 male
Wildlife Conservation Bond
Country: South Africa
Focal Area: Biodiversity
Type: Bond
Agency: World Bank
GEF Product: Outcome Based Grant | $15M
Leverage: 1:11 | $161M
Goal: Harness investment from capital markets to directly support endangered species
conservation.
Global Environmental Benefits:
- Ind. 1 Terrestrial protected areas: 153,141 hectares
- Ind. 11 Number of direct beneficiaries : 622 female; 1,684 male
Dominica Geothermal Risk Mitigation II
Country: Commonwealth of Dominica
Focal Area: Climate Change Mitigation
Type: Guarantee
Agency: World Bank
GEF Product: Guarantee & Grant | $13M
Leverage: 1:9 | $113M
Goal: Supports integration of Dominica’s first 10 MW geothermal plant and climate‑resilient grid upgrades.
Global Environmental Benefits:
- Ind. 6 Greenhouse gas emissions mitigated: 1.11 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent
- Ind. 11 Number of direct beneficiaries: 35,294 female; 36,878 male
Private Sector
Sustainable and Inclusive Green Acceleration
Region: Europe and Central Asia
Focal Area: Climate Change Mitigation
Type: Loan and Result Based Payments
Agency: EBRD
GEF Product: Loan | $15M
Leverage: 1:16 | $237M
Goal: Accelerate decarbonization and market transformation by expanding access to affordable finance for energy efficiency projects implemented by small and medium enterprises and other private sector actors.
Global Environmental Benefits:
- Ind. 6 Greenhouse emissions mitigated: 8.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent
- Ind. 11 Number of direct beneficiaries : 4,944 female; 7,056 male
Decarbonization of Textile, Apparel & Footwear Suppliers
Region: Global
Focal Area: Chemicals and Waste, Climate Change Mitigation
Type: Fund
Agency: World Bank - IFC
GEF Product: First-Loss Tranche Debt | $16M
Leverage: 1:15 | $237M
Goal: The GEF investment will support the decarbonization of textile, apparel, and footwear supply chains through investment in a debt fund. The fund will provide loans to suppliers in these industries to implement decarbonization projects, driving Scope 3 GHG emission reductions for global brands committed to decarbonizing their supply chains.
Global Environmental Benefits:
- Ind. 6 Greenhouse gas emissions mitigated: 7.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent
- Ind. 9 Chemicals of global concern and their waste reduced: 0.20 metric tons
- Ind. 11 Number of direct beneficiaries: 78,000 female; 19,500 male
Living Amazon Mechanism
Country: Brazil
Focal Area: Biodiversity
Type: Securitization
Agency: FUNBIO
GEF Product: Reimbursable Grant | $7M
Leverage: 1:6 | $43M
Goal: Promote conservation and income generation for Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the Amazon with an innovative financial model that securitizes Natura's socio-biodiversity supply chain to provide cooperatives with affordable access to finance.
Global Environmental Benefits:
- Ind. 1 Terrestrial protected areas: 11,989,034 hectares
- Ind. 6 Greenhouse gas emissions mitigated: 5.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent
- Ind. 11 Number of direct beneficiaries: 10,000 female; 10,000 male
AGRI 3 A Forest Conservation and Sustainable Agriculture Fund
Region: Global
Focal Area: Climate Change Mitigation, Biodiversity, Land Degradation
Type: Fund
Agency: Conservation International
GEF Product: Equity | $14M
Leverage: 1:11 | $152M
Goal: De-risk and support financial institutions in expanding their lending activities toward forest conservation and sustainable agriculture, unlocking commercial finance for projects across the agricultural value chain.
Global Environmental Benefits:
- Ind. 3 Area of land restored: 87,000 hectares
- Ind. 4 Area of landscapes: 741,000 hectares
- Ind. 6 Greenhouse gas emissions mitigated: 18.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent
- Ind. 11 Number of direct beneficiaries: 90,000 female; 210,000 male
How to Access Blended Finance Resources at the GEF
GEF-9 blended finance resources in the form of financial instruments other than grants will flow through two entry points:
- The Blended Finance Program (former NGI window), a dedicated set-aside accessible for projects requesting debt, equity, guarantee, or other financial instruments other than grants. In GEF- 9 this program received an allocation of $388 million and all projects under this program must be channeled through a GEF implementing agency.
- STAR and non-STAR focal area allocations, whereby countries can use their allocations in form of non-grant instruments in blended finance structures. As an incentive, for every $3 a country commits from its STAR allocation to a blended finance structure, it can unlock $1 in additional resources from the Blended Finance Program (3:1 ratio).
For STAR and non-STAR focal areas, programming decisions rest with recipient countries, in line with their national priorities.
Project Developers: How to Apply to the Blended Finance Program
This process applies only to full-size projects
- Develop a project idea that supports the beneficiary country's environmental priorities and is aligned with the GEF focal areas priorities (biodiversity, climate change, land degradation, international waters, chemicals & waste) or a multi-focal approach as defined in the GEF-9 Programming Directions.
- Identify and engage with GEF implementing agencies. GEF funding is only accessed through its partner agencies, you can't apply directly. Find one whose focus matches your project and one that has the capacity and experience to deploy the type of financial instrument you need. Project beneficiaries must be in eligible GEF recipient countries and must be aligned with GEF-9 Programming Directions.
- The agency confirms interest. In the case of sovereign operations, the agency will help get country buy-in. In these cases, agencies engage the country's GEF Operational Focal Point to confirm your idea aligns with national priorities and secure their endorsement as necessary and required by the GEF’s policies.
- Your idea becomes a Project Identification Form (PIF). The agency formalizes the ideas and prepares a PIF. Once the PIF is ready, the agency submits it to the GEF Secretariat, which reviews it and provides feedback. This step usually involves several iterations between the agencies and the GEF Secretariat.
- Once the GEF Secretariat determines that the PIF is ready to be considered by the GEF Council, the proposed PIF will be included in a work program for approval by the GEF Council at one of its bi-annual meetings.
- Final project preparation and approval. Once the PIF is approved, the agency needs to finalize the full project details, including co-financing and financial terms of the proposed financial instruments. The agency prepares the CEO Endorsement Request (CER), reflecting all these details. Once the CER is ready, the agency submits it for GEF Secretariat reviews and the subsequent endorsement by the GEF CEO.
- Once the GEF CEO endorses the project for implementation, implementation begins, with the agency managing delivery and reporting to the GEF over the project's life.