A jointly funded programme established by developed countries at the time of the Rio Summit to meet their obligations under various international environmental treaties. GEF serves as the interim financial mechanism for the UNFCCC, in particular to cover the cost of reporting by non-Annex I countries. It provides funds to complement traditional development assistance by covering the additional or ‘agreed incremental costs’incurred by non-Annex I countries, when a national,regional or global development project also targets global environmental objectives such as those which address biodiversity.

A time dependent index used to compare the radiative forcing, on a mass basis, of an impulse of a specific greenhouse gas relative to that of CO2. Gases included in the Kyoto Protocol are weighted in the first commitment period according to their GWP over a 100-year time horizon as published in the 1995 Second Assessment Report of the IPCC. In the 2001 TAR, the values were updated slightly, so that a kilogram of methane for example has a radiative force of about 23 times greater than that of a kilogram of CO2. The GWP of CO2 is defined as 1, thus methane has a GWP of 23 over the 100-year time horizon.

Gases in the earth’s atmosphere that absorb and re-emit infra-red radiation. These gases occur through both natural and human-influenced processes. The major GHG is water vapour. Other primary GHGs include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, ozone and CFCs.