Global Environment Outlook

GEO is one of the crucial tools that provide information regarding the environment so that the decision-making can be more effective to bring collaboration and interaction between policy and science. GEO enhances environmental assessment so that the policy makers can take effective decisions to support environmental factors and sustainable environment. 

What is GEO?

GEO can be defined as a participatory process to conduct assessment of the environment for reporting environmental trends and outlooks. The aim of the product is to provide support to the environmental aspect so that the decision making process can be more efficient and the output of the production system does not harm the environment. GEO also focuses on supporting multi stakeholders of an environment such as inter regional and in traditional authorities. Its objective is to apply “Integrated Environmental Assessment” (IEA) as a part of an advisory report to the stakeholders to address several issues in the environment. 

The “United Nations” environment launched GEO in 1997. GEO is used as a tool to fulfil the core functions of “United Nations Environment Program”. 

What is UNEP? 

UNEP was established with the golden objective to coordinate with different activities of UN systems and Nations to provide guidance regarding environmental practices. It was established in 1972 to promote cooperation between international organisations to address issues of environment as well as offer guidance to the organisations to mitigate environmental impacts. 

The headquarter of UNEP is situated in Nairobi, Kenya. Aim of this organisation is to encourage participation of different international and private organisations to promote sustainability in the environment through efficient uses and utilisation of natural resources. 

UNEP has released its 6 GEO report in 2019 which has provided several future trends of the environment and provides guidance to adopt effective policies to mitigate those issues. 

Findings of 6th GEO Report

Greenhouse gas emission

With the rise of industrialisation greenhouse gas emission has also increased over a period of time. The report has signified that rising emission of greenhouse gases increases risk of floods and storms droughts that can impact not only human civilization but also wildlife populations. This report has also highlighted that this emission can also cause rise in sea level as it enhances global warming and climate change processes. Thus, there is a need to take effective policies to reduce greenhouse gas emission. 

Diseases and Deaths

The rise of pollution affects the health of people. The increasing man-made pollution enhances dates and diseases and causes serious damage to the environment. As per the report, only 9 million deaths occurred in 2015 because of this man-made pollution. Pollution in the environment occurs because of several human activities, which need to be addressed with collaboration of different governments and international organisations. 

Access to clean water

The report has highlighted that millions of people are suffering and dying because of the lack of clean water supply. It has highlighted that each year 1.4 million people are dying from diarrhoea and parasites which have occurred because of lack of clean water supply. 

Exploitation of natural resources

The report has also signified that land depression has been increased with the increasing civilization process where the people are engaged with deforestation activities. More than 3.2 billion people have made their home by deforestation and mega farming processes which has a severe impact on the environment and can cause higher carbon emission and lower quality of water and air.

Food waste

Food waste is one of the major concerns and issues in the world. Wastage of food affects the greenhouse gas emission process. The report has highlighted that nearly 9% of greenhouse gas emission in the world is because of wastage of food. It has also highlighted that the world is wasting one third of its total produced food where the rich countries are wasting more than 56% of its total food. Report has also advised to take policy to reduce waste of food in developed and developing countries so that in equality of Nutrition reduced as well as list mean meat incentives diets needs to be promoted to reduce greenhouse gas emission through livestock productions. As per the report, more than 9 to 10 billion people can feed if there is no food waste. 

Significance of report and way forward

GEO has highlighted several trends and issues in the current scenario where there is a need to take appropriate and effective policies to ensure addressing of these problems and issues. International organisations as well as governmental organisations need to take several strategies and policies to incentivise reducing greenhouse gas admission through seven industrial activities as well as food waste. Greenhouse gas emission is rising over a period of time which highlights the probability of several extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and others which can affect wildlife as well as human health. This is why there is a need to take appropriate policies to mitigate those issues highlighted by the 6th GEO report. 

Conclusion 

It can be concluded that the GEO report is effective in providing guidance to the different organisations so that they can take appropriate policies to combat several environmental issues and impacts and estimate future trends. This outlook is also effective to enhance collaboration and engagement of organisations to meet a common goal that is sustainable environment with maximum output.