Spotlight

The Intergovernmental Meeting on the Sixth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6) Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) convened from 21-24 January 2019 at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The meeting was attended by 251 participants from 95 countries. GEO is the flagship report of UNEP, which periodically provides scientific evidence on changes in the environment. The State of the Environment section of this year's report covers: Air, biodiversity, oceans and coasts, land, freshwater, and cross-cutting issues. The 1200-page report also analyses effectiveness of environmental policies, and recommends transformative changes.

Throughout the week, delegates discussed the SPM in order to reach agreement on a document that will be presented to the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-4), due next March. They concluded their deliberations by endorsing a final text of the document, and requested the Assessment Report Co-Chairs to formulate and forward a summary with key messages to UNEA-4.

The SPM consists of five sections:
• What is the Global Environment Outlook?
• What is Happening to Our Environment and How Have We Responded?
• Effectiveness of Environmental Policies;
• Changing the Path We Are On; and
• Knowledge for Action.

AFED Secretary General Najib Saab is member of the High Level Group (HLG) overlooking the GEO process, and has participated in its work over the past 4 years. AFED experts had contributed to GEO at various stages, and AFED reports were used in the regional assessment at various stages.