SANF 07 No 43
The fourth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4) produced by the United Nations Environment Programme was launched on 25 October 2007, with the key message that the world has changed dramatically over the past 20 years.
The launch of the report was conducted simultaneously in about 40 cities across the world, including Johannesburg, South Africa and Port Louis, Mauritius. Both countries are members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Using the 1987 Brundtland Commission report, Our Common Future, as a baseline, the GEO-4: Environment for Development acknowledges that the world has changed radically for both good and bad.
The world population has increased by 34 percent, trade is almost three times greater, and the average per capita income has gone up by about 40 percent.
While there has been progress in the management of some environmental problems such as the reduction in the levels of air and water pollution, the GEO-4 report warns that there remain many persistent challenges.
Climate change, land degradation, the deterioration of fisheries and the extinction of species are some of the environmental challenges identified in the report.
The report notes that the climate change challenge is huge. Greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change will need to be reduced to about 50 percent of their 1990 levels by 2050 if temperatures are to increase by a minimal 2 oC from their pre-industrial period levels.
Speaking at the Johannesburg launch of GEO-4, Norbeto Fenandez, a senior officer at UNEP, said the report is the outcome of a four-year collaborative process involving 390 experts and 53 collaborative centres.
The collaborating centres, drawn from all over the world, include the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) Musokotwane Environment Resource Centre for Southern Africa (IMERCSA).
The collaborating centres ensure depth in the research and analysis of issues, especially at the sub-regional levels. For example, SARDC IMERCSA’s participation is intended to ensure that facts and figures about southern Africa are accurately and adequately presented in the report.
Through the collaborating centre network, participation and consultation in the GEO-4 process were widened and a bigger pool of experts engaged.
Of the 390 experts who contributed towards the GEO-4 report, a number were from southern Africa.
These included Sara Feresu from the Institute of Environmental Studies in Zimbabwe, Rudi Pretorius from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in South Africa, Alioune Sall from the African Futures Institute, and Clever Mafuta from SARDC.
Speaking to the media, during a question and answer session, Mafuta, a coordinating lead author for GEO-4 Chapter 6 on Regional Perspectives explained the choice of land degradation in the chapter as a priority issue for Africa.
He noted that besides being a widespread environmental challenge in Africa, land degradation is a crosscutting issue with impacts on the quality and quantity of water and on the preservation of biodiversity.
Land degradation is exacerbated by climate change through droughts and floods, while urbanization in Africa, which is the most rapid in the world, also presents land challenges.Through the land degradation lens it was possible to produce a comprehensive assessment of all environmental themes in Africa.
An interesting feature of GEO-4 is its linkage to other assessments, including the Millennium Ecosystems assessment, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change assessment and the Millennium Development Goals initiative.
By building synergies with other assessments and through the use of an integrated environmental assessment approach, the GEO-4 report is not only the most comprehensive UN report on the environment, but also a major assessment of social, economic and political drivers of environmental change.
