The French Facility for Global Environment ( Fonds Français pour l'Environnement Mondial) (FFEM) is a French public bilateral fund whose mission is to protect the global environment in

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed Secondary sector of the economy, industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. ...

, in the name of the French cooperation and development policy. Its intervention strategy is steered by a committee gathering 5 ministries (Ministry of the Economy and Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Marine Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry for Research) and the

French Development Agency The French Development Agency (, AFD), known from 1992 to 1998 as the Caisse Française de Développement (CFD, ), is a public financial institution that implements France's development and international solidarity policies. It works to fight pov ...

(AFD). The AFD is responsible for the administrative and financial management of the FFEM and is hosting its secretariat. The current secretary general is Stéphanie Bouziges-Eschmann, who succeeded François-Xavier Duporge.

History

The FFEM was created in 1994 by the French government following the

United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as Rio 2012, Rio+20 (), or Earth Summit 2012 was the third international conference on sustainable development aimed at reconciling the economic and environmental goals ...

held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The French government wished to develop a funding instrument contributing to the protection of the environment, in the framework of the international commitments of France. The FFEM resources are tapped by the French State budget and renewed every four years since 1994. For the 2011-2014 period, resources amounted to 95 million euros. Between 1994 and 2015, the FFEM participated to the financing of 285 projects, totalling 331 million euros.Annual Report, FFEM, Retrieved on March 16, 2017, URL : http://www.ffem.fr/webdav/site/ffem/shared/ELEMENTS_COMMUNS/U_ADMINISTRATEUR/5-PUBLICATIONS/Rapport-annuel/2015/FFEM-RA2015_UK_BD_pages.pdf

Missions

The FFEM's mission is to encourage developing countries to implement strategies and projects of sustainable development in the 6 following areas: *

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

; *

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

; *

international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...

; *

land degradation Land degradation is a process where land becomes less healthy and productive due to a combination of Human impact on the environment, human activities or natural conditions. The causes for land degradation are numerous and complex. Human activitie ...

, including

desertification Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of Soil fertility, fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities. The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This i ...

and

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

; *

persistent organic pollutant Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic compounds that are resistant to degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. They are toxic and adversely affect human health and the environment around the world. Because ...

s (POPs); *

ozone layer The ozone layer or ozone shield is a region of Earth's stratosphere that absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation. It contains a high concentration of ozone (O3) in relation to other parts of the a ...

. Projets funded by the FFEM help to implement organizational methods and techniques which have a new and innovative feature. The FFEM is also responsible to promote partnerships with research organizations, the private sector,

local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

and

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

in the context of funding pilot projects. In addition to the funding of projects, the FFEM has a role of support and advice to the member institutions of its steering committee, for the development of the French positions on environmental and development matters. The geographical areas of intervention of the FFEM are the

and the

emerging countries An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or we ...

. Subsaharan Africa and Mediterranean region represent alone 69% of all the projects funded by the FFEM over the period 1994–2015.

Innovative Facility for the Private Sector in the area of climate change (FISP-Climat)

The FFEM has developed since 2013 this specific funding mechanism to support innovative development projects within the area of climate change, sponsored by businesses.

Strategic Programming Framework 2015–2018

In its Strategic Programming Framework for the period 2015–2018, the FFEM has prioritized its financial commitments across five focus areas: *

Energy transition An energy transition (or energy system transformation) is a major structural change to energy supply and consumption in an energy system. Currently, a transition to sustainable energy is underway to limit climate change. Most of the sustainab ...

* Sustainable urban territories *

Sustainable agriculture Sustainable agriculture is agriculture, farming in sustainability, sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an ...

and forests * Innovative financing of

* Integrated management and resilience of coastal and marine areas For the first time, the FFEM has also identified two cross-cutting objectives in accordance with the previous five focus areas. These objectives are

sustainable consumption Sustainable consumption (sometimes abbreviated to "SC") is the use of products and services in ways that minimizes human impact on the environment, impacts on the environment. Sustainable consumption can be undertaken in such a way that needs are ...

and production and innovative processes.

Organization

Steering Committee

The steering committee is the decision-making body of the FFEM. It meets three times a year in order to decide on the general policy of the Fund, its geographical orientations, its fields of intervention, its methods, its resources as well as the financial commitments to projects. The following six bodies are gathered under the Committee: * the

Ministry of the Economy A Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Economic Affairs, or Department of Commerce is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the economy or economic policy. List Examples of such mi ...

* the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

* the Ministry of the Environment * the Ministry of the Research * the

Ministry of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

* the

Scientific and technical Committee

The Scientific and technical Committee is the consultative body of the FFEM. It is composed of twelve key figures who are recognized for their expert knowledge on economic, environmental and social issues. The Committee provides advice for the projects and strategies of the FFEM, along with working on scientific and technical aspects of the global environment.

Secretariat

The secretariat is the operational body of the FFEM. It is hosted by the

(AFD), at its premises located at 5 rue Roland Barthes in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. It is responsible for implementing the decisions of the steering committee and follow-up on projects financed by the FFEM. Its role is also to develop relations with the institutional, economic, technical and scientific partners.

References

External links

Official website of the French Facility for Global Environment
{{DEFAULTSORT:French Facility for Global Environment Environmental organizations based in France Funding bodies