The rigorous assessment process aims to make Global Environment Outlook (GEO) products scientifically credible and policy-relevant by providing information to support environmental management and policy development. The GEO-6 process also supports multi-stakeholder networking and intra- and inter-regional cooperation to identify and assess key priority environmental issues at the regional levels. A worldwide network of authors, fellows and partners; a transparent nomination process that allows governments and other stakeholders to nominate experts to the process; advisory groups to provide guidance on scientific and policy issues, such as the High-Level Group, Scientific Advisory Panel, and Assessment Methodologies Group; and comprehensive peer review processes are some of the integral elements of the Global Environment Outlook.
The working structure of GEO-6 is different from GEO-5 in that it includes co-chairs and vice-chairs. The Scientific Advisory Panel recommended this structure to improve the scientific credibility of the GEO-6 process. The structure incorporates guidance on policy relevance from the high-level group, co-chairs and vice chairs who will act as a bridge between the authors and advisory bodies, and GEO Fellows, whose role will be to support the process by assisting the authors with research questions and performing quality assurance tasks for citations and references. The structure also considers review editors who conducted evaluations at the end of each review period to ensure that review comments were dealt with appropriately. They prepared a summary report from each review period.
Using the integrated environmental assessment (IEA) methodology, the United Nations Environment Programme has produced six GEO reports thus far and the first edition of regional assessments, which have analyzed environmental state and trends at the global and regional scales, described plausible outlooks for various time frames, and formulated policy options.
Each GEO report builds on the assessment findings of its predecessor and draws from lessons learnt.
