One of the goals the international community has set in the various multilateral environmental agreements is to contribute to resolving global environmental problems. However, developing countries often lack the resources necessary to do this. Switzerland supports the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements and measures in favour of the global environment through its environmental financing and by contributing to environmental funds.
To attain the objectives of multilateral environmental agreements in developing and newly industrialised countries, financial resources are needed. The financing mechanisms included specifically for that purpose in the environmental agreements make grants to the developing countries to support them in implementing the agreements. International environmental policy is based on the basic understanding of “commitment in exchange for support”: developing countries have entered into commitments for the benefit of global environmental policy and, in exchange, they receive support for the “agreed full incremental costs” of implementing the measures in question. The environmental financing mechanisms form part of the multilateral environmental negotiations and are an important leverage factors – and one of the few – available to the industrialised countries in the context of the negotiations.
The Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) is the authority responsible for the financing mechanisms of the environmental Conventions. However, given the important link between this area and development policy, it cooperates with other federal authorities, namely the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Federal Finance Administration (FFA) and the Sectoral Foreign Policies Division (SFPD) in the PLAFICO coordination platform, which ensures coherence. Switzerland supports the principle that developing countries should be supported in the implementation of the environmental conventions. It demands fair burden-sharing in this regard and believes that support should be given on a differentiated basis according to individual needs and capacities. Newly industrialised countries that have experienced strong economic growth since the signing of the Rio conventions in 1992 should assume a suitably greater level of responsibility.
Global Environment Facility (GEF)
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has 182 member countries. It works with international organisations, non-governmental organisations and the private sector as the central financing mechanism for implementing key environmental conventions and protocols in developing countries.
The GEF is the only multilateral fund that covers all areas essential to the global environment. Since its foundation in 1991, it has funded more than 5,600 projects in 164 developing and transition countries in the five focal areas of climate change,
biodiversity, international waters, desertification/land degradation and chemicals and waste. The GEF has mobilised around USD 119 billion over the past four years for the benefit of the global environment, which it has been able to do thanks to a high co-financing ratio of 1 to approximately 6 (or 1 to 7.8 under GEF-7). The GEF works and adds value through its projects, which contribute to improving framework conditions in recipient countries for the good of the global environment. These projects also trigger additional funding. The mobilised funding comes from national sources in the recipient countries, from additional financing from the multilateral development banks and other multilateral donors, from bilateral donors, and from the private sector.
Switzerland is one of the 32 members of the GEF Council, and represents a constituency that includes the Central Asian partner countries Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. Cooperation within this constituency, which was established in 1999 on Switzerland’s initiative, has intensified over the years. The GEF Council meets twice yearly and decides, in particular, on the strategic orientation and the projects and programmes to be supported using GEF funding.
In spring 2022, negotiations for the eighth replenishment of the GEF Trust Fund (GEF-8) were concluded with a historic increase to USD 5.3 billion. Much of this funding is provided through eleven integrated programmes (IPs) that address multiple environmental challenges simultaneously. Switzerland contributed CHF 155.4 million to the eighth replenishment as global environmental challenges continue to grow and the GEF operates efficiently and effectively.
Every four years, the GEF Independent Evaluation Office examines the effectiveness of GEF-funded projects and programmes. The seventh evaluation of the GEF, which was completed in 2021 (GEF IEO 2021), attests to the above-average rate of success of GEF projects, their recognisable effectiveness in achieving global environmental targets, and their great relevance for the conventions and recipient countries. The eighth comprehensive evaluation of the GEF will be available at the end of 2025. For GEF-8 (2023–26), the targets agreed by the member countries include:
- Climate Change: Reducing carbon emissions to the equivalent of 1,750 billion tonnes of CO2.
- Biodiversity and Desertification: Protecting a total of 240 million hectares of land and sea, contributing to a more sustainable use of 255 million hectares of land and sea, and renaturing 10 million hectares of land.
- Chemicals and waste: Harmless destruction or avoidance of a total of 360,000 tonnes of hazardous chemicals and waste.
- International waters: More sustainable management of 39 transboundary waters (freshwater and saltwater).
The GEF had already achieved 70–100% of the above targets by the summer of 2024.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF)
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a global fund that was set up in response to climate change and invests in low-emission and climate-resilient development. It takes special account of the needs of developing countries, which are particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Switzerland shares a seat on the GCF Board with Finland, Hungary, Liechtenstein and Monaco.
Mission
The GCF was set up by the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010. For the first replenishment period (2020–23), contributions totalling some USD 10 billion were pledged by over 30 countries. The second replenishment of the fund for the period 2023–27 is pending and is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. The GCF aims to make a significant and ambitious contribution to global efforts to tackle climate change. It helps developing countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and enhance their ability to respond to climate change, taking into account the specific needs of those developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. The GCF has committed to spending half its funding on climate change adaptation measures.
Priorities and functioning
The GCF finances climate activities in developing countries in the following areas:
- Transforming power generation and access to clean energy
- Building sustainable transport systems
- Supporting climate-compatible cities and industries
- Protecting forests and promoting sustainable land use
- Supporting low-emission and climate-resilient agriculture
- Preserving ecosystems and strengthening ecosystem services
- Protecting the livelihoods of vulnerable communities
The GCF seeks to strike a balance in the allocation of funding between reducing greenhouse gases (mitigation) and adapting to the impacts of climate change (adaptation). It also actively engages with the private sector to secure additional funds for developing countries.
The GCF's activities are implemented through accredited entities at international, regional, national and sub-national level. Cooperation with national contact offices ensures funding applications are aligned with national strategies and priorities.
Governance
The GCF is led by a Board comprising 24 members, drawn equally from developing and industrial countries. The independent Secretariat in Songdo (South Korea), led by the Executive Director, is responsible for day-to-day operations, while the GCF Board makes strategic and funding decisions.
Switzerland and the Green Climate Fund
Switzerland played an instrumental role in the founding of the GCF, particularly in the Fund's design and development phase. It has helped to replenish the fund since its beginnings. It contributed USD 150 million to the second replenishment phase, 2024–27. Switzerland is represented on the GCF Board, in partnership with Finland, Hungary, Liechtenstein and Monaco. Its involvement in the Green Climate Fund is coordinated through the joint PLAFICO platform, run by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). Switzerland supports the Fund's goals and principles, attaching particular importance to the following priorities:
- Improving complementarity and coherence with other climate finance institutions
- Optimising the network of partner organisations for impact-oriented project activities
- Enhancing private sector engagement to mobilise additional funds
- Promoting transparent, efficient and inclusive processes, and the effective deployment of funds
Portfolio
Up to the end of March 2025, the GCF Board pledged some USD 16.7 billion to support 297 projects in more than 100 countries. As a result of these projects, over 3.1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases will be avoided and more than 1 billion people around the world will enjoy greater resilience to climate change. All projects are listed on the GCF website.
Climate finance
International climate finance is an essential component of Switzerland’s international climate policy. Switzerland is therefore also closely involved in the international negotiations concerning the Climate Convention. Both within and outside the Convention, it works to develop pragmatic solutions for the various challenges in climate finance, such as the calculation rules, and incentive systems for mobilising private finance. It is committed to contributing its fair share to international climate finance and the various climate funds.
In addition to the GEF and the GCF there are three further climate funds associated with the Climate Convention:
- The Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) was set up in 2001 as part of the UNFCCC financing mechanism. It was designed to address the special needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), above all the poorest African countries and the tiny island nations, which are particularly badly affected by climate change and its negative consequences. One focus of LDCF funding is on national climate change adaptation programmes.
- The Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) was established under the Convention in 2001 as part of its financing mechanism. It provides additional funding for UNFCCC climate protection measures in developing and transitional nations. Part of the programme focuses on the adaptation priorities of small island states, while another focuses on innovation, technology transfer and private sector involvement.
- The Adaptation Fund (AF) was established in 2001 to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing country Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The AF will be primarily financed with a share of proceeds from the clean development mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol. All project activities in the CDM are subject to a 4% tax, half of which flows into the AF.
Ozone layer depletion fund
The Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol, which was created in 1990, supports developing countries in the implementation of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The aim of this Protocol is to reduce gradually, and ultimately ban, the production and use of the main pollutants that deplete the ozone layer (CFCs, HCFCs, halons, carbon tetrachloride and methyl bromide). Most of these substances have been banned in industrialised countries since 1996. A ban also came into effect in developing countries in 2010.
Between 1991 and the end of 2024, the fund financed 10,070 projects and activities totalling around USD 4.2 billion in 144 countries. The Ozone Fund has helped to reduce the global production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances almost entirely. The Ozone Fund projects also enable recipient countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. By the end of 2021, 2.2 trillion tonnes of CO2 equivalents had already been avoided thanks to the fund's support.
Framework credit for global environmental policy
On 25 August 2022, the Swiss Federal Council approved a dispatch to Parliament on a four-year framework credit of CHF 197.75 million for the global environment (2023–2026). The main component of this (CHF 155.4 million) is earmarked for the eighth replenishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). As the financing mechanism for the key environmental conventions, the GEF plays a central role in international environmental policy. By maintaining its engagement at current levels, Switzerland can ensure credibility and consistency. In addition to the Swiss contribution to the GEF, the dispatch also includes Swiss contributions to the Ozone Fund (financing mechanism of the Montreal Protocol on protecting the ozone layer) and to adaptation-focused climate funds (the Least Developed Countries Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund) as well as a small implementation credit. Switzerland’s commitment to international environmental policy began in 1991 with CHF 145 million from the Jubilee Fund marking the 700th anniversary of the foundation of the Swiss Confederation (fund total CHF 700 million). Since then, it has continued at four-year intervals with further allocations of CHF 88.5 million (1998), CHF 125 million (2003), CHF 109.7 million (2007), CHF 148.93 million (2011) and CHF 147.83 million (2015 and 2019). Switzerland charges the framework credit amounts to its public development aid budget, in accordance with the corresponding rules of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD). The Federal Council is requesting Parliament’s approval for a new framework credit for the 2023–2026 period. By increasing its engagement in step with other donors, Switzerland can ensure credibility.
Transparency and financial reporting
Switzerland reports regularly on its contributions to help implement environmental conventions in developing countries. Greater transparency and more robust calculation methods for quantifying international environmental finance are crucial to ensuring transparent, internationally comparable and reliable reports, which is why Switzerland strives for this in international climate and biodiversity negotiations.
In its report of 10 May 2017 in answer to parliamentary procedural request 15.3798 dated 2 July 2015, the Federal Council provided information about Switzerland’s current and possible future international climate financing. Based on a weighted consideration of the two criteria 'Switzerland’s economic competitiveness' and the 'polluter-pays principle', the Federal Council decided that Switzerland’s fair share of the industrialised nations’ joint funding target should be at least USD 450 to 600 million per year. To achieve this, Switzerland will use public funds from existing sources (Global Environment Commitment Credit and International Cooperation Commitment Credit) and, to a significant extent, mobilised private funds. Switzerland reports every two years to the Secretariat of the Climate Convention and the Paris Climate Agreement on its international climate financing. Switzerland submitted its first biennial transparency report (BTR), as required by the Paris Agreement, at the end of 2024. The BTR shows the progress made in recent years and the efforts made to fulfil the obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. The BTR replaces the previous national reporting in the climate sector.
Switzerland’s first report drawn up in accordance with the new biodiversity financing targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the resolutions of the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference will be submitted at the end of February 2026.
Biodiversity in Switzerland: Status and Trends
This publication does not exist in English. It is available in other languages. 2023
Mobilizing the private sector
Besides public funding, private environmental finance also plays a key role. The private sector is deeply committed to different areas of the environment to varying extent.
Private sector mobilisation, especially in the area of climate, is a core component of the contributions that help developing countries implement the Convention. The private sector already finances measures in developing countries that reduce greenhouse gases and help them adapt to the consequences of climate change. There are many different reasons for private sector involvement. It can be directly profitable, lead to better management of climate risks in companies, or improve their reputation in the eyes of a public that is increasingly aware of climate protection. However, private sector involvement is not always a given. To encourage the private sector to make climate-related investments, appropriate framework conditions are essential.
As is the case for other traditional donor states, private climate finance is in Switzerland’s interest, which is why it intends that a significant portion of its fair share of the new collective, quantified finance goal of USD 300 billion by 2035 shall be mobilised from private funds. Switzerland believes it is important to use the limited public funds in order to mobilise additional private funds for climate protection as effectively as possible and without undesirable side effects.
Further information
Links
Documents
Contribution of the private sector to Climate Change Long-Term-Finance (PDF, 765 kB, 01.03.2013)An assessment of private climate finance mobilized by Switzerland. Final report commissioned by the FOEN
Last modification 18.06.2025
