GEO-6 Report released
AWI researcher is one of the lead authors of the UN Environment Programme
The ‘Global Environment Outlook’ will offer politicians and other decision-makers concrete recommendations and future-ready strategies
[02. May 2019]
The Global Environment Outlook (GEO) is generally considered to be the flagship of the UN’s Environment Programme. And AWI climate researcher Prof Peter Lemke has been a major contributor to it; he was selected as one of the lead authors for the sixth, recently released environment report (GEO-6 Report).
The report represents the most comprehensive assessment of the global environment produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and highlights trends in the environmental components air, land and soil, oceans and coasts, freshwater and biodiversity. Since these components are in many cases closely interconnected, and since they, as a whole, affect the foundations of human life, they are addressed in the report’s fourth chapter, ‘Cross-cutting issues’, which Peter Lemke contributed to. The chapter covers the topic areas climate change, polar regions and mountains, chemicals, resources and materials, energy, and food systems, as well as health, environmental catastrophes, gender, education and urbanisation.
In the course of preparing the report, Lemke, an expert from theAlfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research,especially focused on the area ‘polar regions and mountains’, but also on its connections to the chapters on individual environmental components: “GEO is the United Nations’ most comprehensive report on natural and anthropogenic changes to the global environment and their effects on the basis of human life. The report’s not just about the climate, but also other environmental problems, like pollution, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, overtaxing our resources, and clean drinking water.”
The report, which was prepared by over 250 researchers and experts from more than 70 countries, complements other UN reports like the Assessment Reports (IPCC) and especially investigates interactions and feedback mechanisms between societal, economic and ecological factors. GEO’s primary goal is to supply recommendations for the political community and other interest groups on how to achieve a more sustainable world. Peter Lemke summarises the main outcomes of this year’s report: “The motto for the GEO-6 report can be summed up as ‘Healthy planet, healthy people: Time to act!’. The global condition of our environment is chiefly influenced by population growth, urbanisation, and economic and technological development, most of which takes place at the environment’s expense. And though sustainability has been called for time and time again, it is only rarely achieved. Accordingly, the report describes the mounting environmental problems in terms of our atmosphere, oceans, surface/soils, biodiversity and drinking water, and provides concrete recommendations on how to get a grip on these problems, and how to put our society on a sustainable path toward a healthy environment.”