The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Dutch-Belgian finance group Fortis announced, in 2008, the first project agreements of the new MDG Carbon Facility, a joint effort to support greenhouse-gas-reducing development projects through carbon-trading mechanisms.
The projects, located in Uzbekistan, Macedonia, Yemen and Rwanda, aspire to use financing from carbon credits to benefit not only the environment but also to further economic and social development in those countries. All of the projects would bring the benefits of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) support to countries where previously there has been little or no CDM activity. UNDP and Fortis announced the projects' initial agreements at an event during the Sixth European Business Summit, titled "Greening the Economy." The 'MDGs' short for the Millennium Development Goals, are specific 2015 targets, agreed by United Nations member states, for diminishing global poverty and achieving major advances in health, education, environment and equality.