This event aims at sharing innovative environmental assessment tools and platforms developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to enhance monitoring, transparency, decision-making, and knowledge. These tools can support actors in ensuring their commitments and finance align with the agreements under the Rio Conventions and prioritize finance flows.  

Free to use and openly available, these tools include: 

• the Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring (FERM) platform tracks the progress of efforts to restore degraded ecosystems, helping to advance the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
• the Climate Change Knowledge Hub platform, an online portal that gathers knowledge and resources on climate change in the agriculture and land use sectors to enhance countries' knowledge and capacity;
• ABC-Map, the adaptation, biodiversity, and carbon mapping tool, a geospatial app that helps actors to tackle biodiversity loss, climate change, and land degradation in a holistic way;
• The NDC Expert Tool (NEXT) a greenhouse gas accounting tool support annual environmental impact assessment;
• The NDC Tracking Tool, which tracks the implementation of the NDCs; and
• Earth Map, a comprehensive and user-friendly tool for land monitoring and climate assessment that can be used to assess land use, land use change, climate change impacts, and natural disasters. 

Presentation and demonstration of the tools will be provided through both videos and live demonstrations. These will be tailored to specific GEF projects that will be analysed using the tools.  This will be followed by a roundtable discussion with co-organizers, speakers, users, and participants from the financial sector (public and private) to discuss the value of tools, potential sustainable finance indicators, how to mainstream environmental tracking in finance. 

Particular focus will be given to look at how the FERM platform can be used for monitoring GEF Ecosystem Restoration, and also at how youth-led innovators can access these tools and resources through the Climate Change Knowledge Hub. 

Speakers

• Jeffrey Griffin, GEF Unit Senior Coordinator, FAO
• Martial Bernoux, Senior Natural Resources Officer, FAO
• Hernan Gonzalez, GEF Technical Officer, FAO
• Mensur Dessie, Director, Multilateral Environmental Negotiation Coordination, Environmental Protection Authority, Ethiopia
• Pascal Martinez, Senior Climate Change Specialist, Global Environment Facility (GEF)
• Ngonidzashe Chirinda, Climate Change Mitigation Panel Member, GEF Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (GEF STAP)

Hosted by FAO, France Development Agency, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Germany, International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), Children and Youth Constituency of the UNFCCC (YOUNGO).