International Environmental Organizations

Since the mid-20^th century, environmental problems have become an increasingly important and studied issue. These problems affect many countries. Governments have the most power in tackling environmental issues. Global organizations cannot force governments to do anything. Several international organizations (IO) are trying to find solutions by working in multiple countries at the same time. IOs are sometimes called Intergovernmental Organizations (IGO) when they are run by governments of different countries that have joined forces. Their members are national representatives.

An international organization (IO) is an alliance of several sovereign nations. This alliance is formalized by an agreement or the signing of an international treaty. IOs bring together government representatives from different countries to organize actions that involve several countries. They do this by consulting, discussing and negotiating to solve various problems. The emphasis here is on IOs that focus on protecting and restoring the environment. 

These are very important international organizations since most environmental problems involve multiple countries. For example, if a country produces a huge amount of CO₂, this affects the ozone layer because the thinning of the ozone layer causes global warming. The actions of one country can have consequences for all countries.

The GEF provides funding for projects with a global reach in the areas of biodiversity, climate change, ozone depletion (caused by greenhouse gases), the protection of international waters, land degradation and toxic pollutants.

This organization is not part of the UN and is the world’s largest source of environmental public funding. The money that goes into this fund comes mainly from donors from richer, industrialized countries, since these countries have better resources than developing countries. 

This organization has made a huge financial contribution. Since it was created, it has granted $20.5 billion and raised $112 billion by leveraging other partners to support more than 4 800 projects in over 170 countries. The list of projects can be found on the organization’s official website: Global Environment Facility | Investing in Our Planet. The organization also has a YouTube channel with various projects and conferences.

Its objective is to encourage countries to preserve the quality and diversity of nature. It also promotes collaboration between countries and provides scientific data on the environment to guide governments on how to take action.

One way it does this is by encouraging sustainable development by ensuring that all countries use their natural resources fairly and sustainably. 

The IUCN (formerly known as the World Conservation Union) uses the following main means of action:

• publishing a comprehensive list of threatened species (Red List of animals and plants at risk of extinction) which aims to raise awareness among nations and citizens

• acting as a mediator, arbitrator or negotiator between biodiversity conservation stakeholders and economic development stakeholders to find common ground and compromises

• establishing international environmental and sustainable development standards, rules and criteria to be observed by all countries

Official website: IUCN

You can see the evolution of the different species in danger of extinction between 1996 and 2019 on the environmental issues page.