Rewiring the System:

In April 2026, as global experts gathered in Nairobi for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Integrated Program Forum, one message stood out: environmental challenges can no longer be tackled in isolation. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution are deeply interconnected, and so must be the solutions.

For GRID-Arendal, this is not a new realization. It is the foundation of how the organization works. At the forum, GRID-Arendal contributed directly to shaping this more integrated approach, while advancing its role in one of the most ambitious global efforts to address plastic pollution: the GEF-8 Plastic Reboot project.

From fragmented efforts to system-wide change
Plastic pollution is often treated as a waste problem. But through the Plastic Reboot project, GRID-Arendal, as a global executing partner, is helping shift the perspective, from managing waste to transforming entire systems. The organisation’s work focuses on something less visible, but essential: how countries measure, track, and understand plastic flows and impacts.

By developing a harmonised methodology for national plastic footprints, governments are better equipped to quantify how much plastic they produce, use, and leak into the environment. This creates a shared language for measuring progress, essential for accountability, stronger policy design, and meeting the ambitions of a future global plastics agreement.

At the same time, together with UNEP, efforts are underway to align how Global Environmental Benefits (GEBs) are measured across projects. This helps ensure that impacts on climate, biodiversity, and pollution are captured and understood as interconnected outcomes, rather than isolated results.

Connecting science, policy, and implementation
During the forum, GRID-Arendal’s contribution extended beyond technical delivery.
Colleagues Lars Stordal and Swati Singh Sambyal engaged in discussions on gender mainstreaming and sustainable supply chains including urbanisation and how to tackle pollution, highlighting the need for more inclusive and systemic approaches across GEF programs. These conversations reinforced a key insight: solutions must be both technically sound and socially grounded to be effective.

The forum also provided an opportunity to strengthen partnerships across a growing portfolio of plastics initiatives led by UNEP and others. Feedback from partners confirmed GRID-Arendal’s role as a trusted technical and communications partner, supporting not only analysis, but also knowledge sharing, storytelling, and capacity building. This dual role is deliberate.

Turning knowledge into impact
GRID-Arendal’s work on Plastic Reboot goes beyond developing methodologies. It includes:
– Supporting technical working groups and communities of practice that connect experts and practitioners across countries
– Delivering training and tools to help governments apply complex methodologies in practice
– Strengthening knowledge management and communication, ensuring that lessons from national projects are visible, shared, and scaled

There is also growing demand for GRID-Arendal to support how projects communicate their impact, through storytelling, visualisation, and accessible data. This reflects a broader shift: evidence alone is not enough; it must be understood and used.

A clear link to strategy
This work sits at the core of GRID-Arendal’s strategy. By focusing on data, knowledge, and capacity, the organization helps bridge the gap between global commitments and national implementation. Its role in Plastic Reboot directly contributes to:
– Advancing integrated approaches across pollution, climate, and biodiversity
– Strengthening science-policy interfaces, ensuring decisions are grounded in credible and harmonized data
– Supporting transformational change, rather than incremental improvements

The discussions at the GEF Forum, on integration, systems thinking, and transformative impact, mirror exactly where GRID-Arendal is working. A key takeaway has been that lasting impact requires aligning data, policy, finance, and stakeholder engagement, with local actors playing a key role in implementation.

Looking ahead
As GEF moves towards defining its GEF-9 Strategic Directions, the need for integrated, scalable solutions will only grow. GRID-Arendal is already part of that future. Through its work on Plastic Reboot and engagement in global forums like Nairobi, the organization is helping shape not just individual projects, but the way the international community approaches environmental challenges as a whole.

Because solving plastic pollution is not just about reducing waste. It is about rewiring the systems that produce it in the first place.