Report
Launch
The
Global Environment Outlook (GEO4) : Environment for development
Asia and the Pacific Pays Higher Price for
Progress…..
26
October 2007
26 October 2007 UN Information Centre, Islamabad: The official launch of the fourth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4), the most comprehensive United Nations assessment report on environment, development and human well-being took place today at the UN Information Centre, Islamabad.Ms. Ishrat Rizvi, National Information Officer gave the introduction of the report followed by a presentation by Mr. Jan Vandemoortele, Resident Coordinator, United Nations, Pakistan. He highlights some of the key messages for the decision makers to act upon. He requested all stake holders including civil society to 'act NOW' on the recommendations of the report.
H.E, Mr. Amin Aslam, State Minister for Environment presented the report. He gave brief explanations of the contents of the report which includes; Climate Change, Land, Biodiversity, Marine and Coastal, Vulnerability of people and Environment and Freshwater. Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Mian Muhammad Jamil was also present in the launch.
According to the report Asia and the Pacific, home to 60 per cent of the world's people, are making "remarkable" progress in reducing poverty, a UN report says. The region is also improving its ability to protect the environment, energy efficiency is increasing in many places, and drinking water provision has advanced considerably in the last decade.
But progress has come at a price. Increases in consumption and associated waste have contributed to the exponential growth in existing environmental problems. Serious challenges remain, including urban air quality, fresh water stress, agricultural land use (a threat to food security) and increased waste. The illegal traffic in electronic and hazardous waste is a new challenge affecting human health and the environment.
Environmental and economic policies have not been fully integrated, a major obstacle to establishing an effective system of environmental management.
The warnings come in Global Environment Outlook 4, GEO-4, the latest in the series of flagship reports from the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme. GEO-4 is published 20 years after the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission) produced its seminal report, Our Common Future. It describes the changes since 1987, assesses the current state of global atmosphere, land, water and biodiversity, and identifies priorities for action.
GEO-4 salutes the world's progress in tackling some relatively straightforward problems, with the environment now much closer to mainstream politics everywhere. But despite these advances, there remain the more persistent issues for which existing measures and institutional arrangements have systematically demonstrated inadequacies and where solutions are still emerging. Failure to address these persistent problems, UNEP says, may undo all the achievements so far on the simpler issues, and may threaten humanity's survival. The report adds - "There are no major issues raised in Our Common Future for which the foreseeable trends are favourable." But it insists: "The objective is not to present a dark and gloomy scenario, but an urgent call for more stringent action."
GEO-4 says the well-being of billions of people in the developing world is at risk, because of a failure to remedy the relatively simple problems which have been successfully tackled elsewhere.It says the world as a whole is living far beyond its means. The human population is now so large that "the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available…humanity's footprint [its environmental demand] is 21.9 hectares per person while the Earth's biological capacity is, on average, only 15.7 ha/person… ".
GEO-4 says ecosystems and human health in Asia and the Pacific continue to deteriorate, while population growth and rapid economic development have driven significant environmental degradation and loss of natural resources.
However, the report also recognizes the region's achievements in protecting its environment, key to tackling poverty. Several countries have already achieved many of the MDG targets and have set themselves new and more demanding goals, called MDG Plus.
This is the first GEO report in which all seven of the world's regions emphasize the potential impacts of climate change, which GEO-4 says is likely to mean more severe droughts and floods in the region, as well as soil degradation, coastal inundation and salt water intrusion caused by sea level rise. Agricultural productivity is likely to decline substantially, because of warmer temperatures and shifting rainfall.
Responding to the questions regarding environmental issues like, cutting of trees in Islamabad, Air Pollution, water & sanitation and Oil exploration, Mr Amin Aslam said that the Ministry of Environment is highly committed and taking every step to address these issues.
A large number of people from media, NGOs, Govt and UN official attended the ceremony.
The October release of GEO-4 took place in 40 cities around the world.