23 October 2014: Top policymakers, leading scientists, and representatives from major stakeholder groups from around the world gathered in Berlin to formally launch the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) sixth iteration of the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) report - the UN's authoritative assessment of the state, trends and outlook of the global environment.
The fifth edition (GEO-5), launched on the eve of the Rio+20 Summit held in 2012, revealed that, of 90 of the most important environmental goals and objectives, significant progress had only been made on four. It was a crucial reminder to world leaders and nations of the need for urgent action to deliver on already agreed environmental goals.
The upcoming sixth edition, expected to be launched in mid-2017, will build upon regional assessment processes and create a comprehensive picture of the environmental factors contributing to human well-being, accompanied by an analysis of policies leading to greater attainment of global environmental objectives and goals.
The 133 delegates attending the GEO-6 Global Intergovernmental and Multi-stakeholder meeting in Berlin endorsed the guiding framework for the report, the methodologies by which it will be conducted, and the process for transparent engagement of authors and contributors to make the GEO-6 scientifically robust and credible.
The delegates embraced innovative technologies that UNEP has been pioneering to facilitate both the preparation and presentation of the report.
The meeting gave importance to capacity-building in all facets of the assessment process, and to incorporating local and indigenous knowledge, in addition to using state-of-the-art technical analyses. As such, GEO-6 will provide a more inclusive assessment of the environment and will enable the creation of more locally appropriate policies.
Online Communities of Practice will be used to engage a wide range of participants in the GEO-6 process, enriching the knowledge base for the assessment. The GEO-6 process will employ innovative information and communication technologies, through UNEP Live - the online knowledge management platform that provides access to data and information - to support the assessment process and facilitate outreach to the public.
GEO-6 will actively employ the perspective that the environment is inextricably linked to sustainable development. Therefore, the assessment will present policy perspectives that are not only good for the environment, but are at the same time aligned with sustainable development objectives more broadly.
GEO-6 will provide the scientific evidence and future-looking environmental policy perspectives to contribute to the UN's mission to enhance development, bringing the voice of the environment to the post-2015 agenda.
