EFFICIENT LIGHTING SYSTEMS

Efficient lighting systems

Efficient lighting systems

Efficient lighting systems, by Wesley Ellis North Bay Haven is Efficient Lighting Project relied on the GEF's manipulation of market forces to subsidize the production of energy-efficient fluorescent lamps, thereby increasing the percentage of households that use energy-efficient lighting.

Action-oriented, on-the-ground projects with replicable schemes characterize the GEF's International Waters projects. Unencumbered by a global convention, the GEF can exhibit a high degree of autonomy in this area. The majority of the International Waters portfolio is dedicated to regional projects, in which education and dialogue are emphasized with the hope that future problems can be addressed collaboratively by neighboring countries. Recent research on these projects found success in building scientific knowledge and creating linkages across social, economic, and environmental issues but found less success in the GEF's ability to enhance the contractual environment and build national capacity.

Although the Ozone Program is the smallest of GEF programs, the impact of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) on earth's protective ozone layer is no small matter. The GEF is not officially linked to the Montreal Protocol, which limited the production of ODS; nevertheless, it has secured $138 million over the last 10 years to help countries with economies in transition to begin phasing out the use of ODS. Only countries that have ratified the protocol are eligible for GEF support.

Land degradation has deep links to global environmental change, among them the threat to biodiversity, the ability to induce climate change, and the disruption of hydrological cycles. GEF projects cut across focal areas to combat desertification and deforestation, with sustainable land management as the ultimate goal. The land degradation program exhibits greater recognition of poverty and economic development than other focal areas but lacks ingenuity: the GEF's Second Overall Performance Study noted that land degradation activities lack innovative approaches to policy and technological components, with projects tending to rely on old technologies and approaches.

Living organisms absorb persistent organic pollutants (POPs) through food, water, and air and accumulate these harmful compounds in their tissues. Exposure to POPs may affect immune and reproductive systems and neurobehavioral development and is connected to birth defects, cancers, and osteoporosis. As the financial mechanism for the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, between 2001 and 2004 the GEF funded more than $141 million POPs projects. The majority of the more than 150 projects center on implementation of the convention, and include the destruction of obsolete stockpiles of POPs.

It was also not uncommon for a central city to supply water to suburbanites, and to charge them more than city residents. By 1915, 91 American cities supplied water not only to their own residents but to outlying populations as well. Suburbs also made use of different types of water systems. While large cities generally required customized systems, suburbs more often could depend on smaller prefabricated water systems that were readily available after the Civil War, such as the Holly pumping system. Suburbs also had more affordable sewerage options, such as the separated or sanitary sewer, designed to drain ...