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GEO - 4 First Production and Authors Meeting
20 to 24 June 2005, Nairobi, Kenya
Top scientists and academics from around the world are meeting this week at UNEP headquarters to contribute to the production of GEO-4, the latest of UNEP’s series of influential global state of the environment reports.
GEO-4, which is due for publication in 2007 in time for the five-year evaluation of progress towards the implementation of the plan agreed by the world’s governments at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, will take a global and regional look at the global environment and the driving forces and trends that are creating change.
The 2007 publication date also marks the half-way point for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight time-bound and achievable targets for reducing poverty and promoting sustainable development that were agreed at the Millennium Summit in 2000. The environment, as well as being the subject of MDG 7, is also a thread that runs through all the goals. The GEO-4 report, with the theme of ‘environment for development’ will reflect this.
UNEP’s flagship GEO process marks its tenth anniversary this year. Involving scientists and collaborating centres from round the world, it is designed to provide global, comprehensive, credible and scientifically honest information for decision makers so they can make informed and sustainable policy decisions. GEO products include three previous global reports, published in 1997, 1999 and 2002, an annual GEO Year Book, plus a growing range of regional, national and city-level assessments. The process also has a strong capacity building component, so that all countries can participate fully in global state of the environment reporting, and generate meaningful information for policy and decision making in their own countries and regions.
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