The fourth Global Environment Outlook – environment for development (GEO-4) places sustainable development at the core of the assessment, particularly on issues dealing with intra- and intergenerational equity. The analyses include the need and usefulness of valuation of environmental goods and services, and the role of such services in enhancing development and human well-being and minimizing human vulnerability to environmental change. The GEO-4 temporal baseline is 1987, the year in which the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) published its seminal report, Our Common Future. The Brundtland Commission was established in 1983, under UN General Assembly resolution 38/161 to look at critical environment and development challenges. It was established at a time of an unprecedented rise in pressures on the global environment, and when grave predictions about the human future were becoming commonplace.
The year 2007 was a major milestone in marking what was achieved in the area of sustainable development and recording efforts – from local to global – to address various environmental challenges.
Rapid environmental change is all around us. This assault on the global environment risks undermining the many advances human society has made in recent decades. It is undercutting our fight against poverty. It could even come to jeopardize international peace and security.
Vital GEO Graphics” is an electronic booklet that is based on GEO-4. This is one of many publications produced within the popular Vital Graphics series – an initiative started by UNEP/GRID-Arendal with the aim to promote communication of scientific findings in accessible easily readable and environmentally friendly format.
