Guangdong-Pearl River Delta Urban Environment

The project would support a large volume of collaborative, least-cost environmental investments and their financial sustainability. This would be achieved through a combination of physical investments, policy and institutional reforms, and financial management improvements. Its over-arching goal would be to achieve the maximum sustainable environment benefits for the Pearl River Delta area and the seas of East Asia by identifying and funding the best least-cost environmental investment program, that can be sustained with sound financial management. The proposed project would constitute the first-phase of a longer-term and very large-scale environmental management program that will be funded from various sources, including the private sector. The project and program will commence with the highest priority investments in the city of Guangzhou, which is the largest contributor to pollution in the PRD, with smaller cities implementing jointly-managed environmental infrastructure investments on a pilot basis. It would also demonstrate innovative service delivery and financing approaches, including private sector provision of environmental infrastructure and services. The GEF resources would target the incremental costs of (i) promoting innovative, collaborative, more cost effective and more sustainable joint municipal environmental infrastructure investments, and (ii) identifying and preparing viable proposals for private-public partnerships. Private investments are seen as key to rapid and sustainable pollution reduction strategies.