UNEP's Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4) report launched in Nairobi.

25 October 2007: The fourth Global Environment Outlook: Environment for Development (GEO-4), UNEP's flagship assessment, was launched Thursday, 25 October 2007.

The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) is UNEP's flagship assessment process and report series providing an overview of the global and regional environmental, social and economic state-and-trends over the past two decades.  It gives a reliable and scientifically credible, policy-relevant and legitimate assessment of and outlook on the interaction between environment and society.

Three global launches took place in London, Nairobi and New York, while 41 other local launches were also planned across the world.

UNIC Nairobi moderated the press conference for the Nairobi launch in a crowded Press Centre where diplomats, scientists, staff, and local and international journalists listened to briefings made by Ambassador Agnes Kalibala from Uganda, who is also Chair of the Committee of Permanent Representatives, UNEP; by Mr. Ivar Baste, UNEP's Chief of Scientific Assessment; and Mr. Peter Acquah, OIC, Regional Office for Africa/UNEP.

In New York, UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, Professor Jeffrey Sachs and several lead authors launched the report, followed by a briefing for delegations, NGOs, and others.

Many other UNICs and UNISs scheduled events associated with the launch, including in Almaty, with UNEP and the Press Club; Beirut, with UNEP Regional Office of West Asia and the American University of Beirut; Bogotá; Cairo; Dakar, with UNDP and UNEP; Lima; and Moscow, with government representatives, NGOs and academics.  UNIC Tokyo is hosting on 26 October a 100-participant symposium with UNEP and research institutes, in collaboration with the Japanese Ministry of Environment.

At the conclusion of the press event in Nairobi, the press was invited to attend a seminar "Back to Our Common Future," which examined developments 20 years after the landmark Brundtland Commission report.  First convened by the United Nations in 1983, the commission was created to address growing concern "about the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural resources and the consequences of that deterioration for economic and social development."

The launch is the culmination of five years of in-depth research, assessment, and stakeholder consultations.  The report covers a range of environmental topics, within a sustainable development framework. New to this edition are foci on human well-being, vulnerability, interlinkages, and economic valuation of natural resources and eco-services.  The report also presents an outlook, using four scenarios to explore plausible futures to the year 2050, as well as policy options to address present and emerging environmental issues.

Click here to view more photographs of the launch.