Intergovernmental and expert-led global and thematic assessments In a rapidly changing world, there is a continuing need to provide up-to-date information and knowledge on the 
world’s environmental situation and a need to produce periodic intergovernmental and expert-led assessments 
of the current state of the environment and the prospects for the future. Such assessments should look at the 
challenges in the natural world in an integrated and holistic way, the potential harm these environmental 
challenges pose to humanity, the effectiveness of the policy responses to address these environmental 
challenges and the possible pathways to achieve internationally agreed environmental goals and an 
environmentally sustainable world. Providing a scientifically credible analysis and assessment of these crucial 
data and information for decision makers is a core mandate and function of the UN Environment Programme 
(UNEP_, as stated in UNGA resolution 2997, 1972: ‘to keep under review the world environment situation to 
ensure that emerging environmental problems of wide international significance receive appropriate and 
adequate consideration’. Conducting intergovernmental and expert-led assessments also fulfils a second 
requirement of UNGA resolution 2997, namely to: ‘promote the contribution of the relevant international 
scientific and other professional communities to the acquisition, assessment and exchange of environmental 
knowledge and information’. Finally, this project fulfils another part of UNEP’s founding mandate, to ‘review the 
impact of national and international environmental policies and measures on developing countries. The 
overarching goal of this project is to provide integrated scientific information and knowledge on the state of the 
environment and support policymakers and decision-makers and other relevant stakeholders at global, regional 
and national levels to develop and implement environmental policies based on this information in order to take 
action toward achieving environmentally sustainable development while improving human well-being. The 
project has the following five outputs: Output 1: Member States, UN system and other relevant stakeholders 
supported to access GEO-7 and its Summary for Policy Makers to inform decisions to act on the triple planetary 
crisis. The request from Member States in resolution EA.5/Res 3 is to prepare a Global Environment Outlook 
(GEO-7) every four years, beginning with GEO-7. Output 2: Member States, Experts and other relevant 
stakeholders have access to the digital platform of GEO to increase the ease of producing GEO reports and 
increase the understanding of the GEO findings. Resolution EA.5/Res 3 requests the Executive Director to 
‘administer the Global Environment Outlook process by developing and implementing streamlined and cost-effective governance and administration’. This will be achieved through an extensive digital transformation of 
the GEO process and product, including digital collaboration platforms and interactive digital presentation 
platforms. Output 3: Capacity of relevant stakeholders (national and local governments, the UN System and 
other relevant institutions) to inform policy development and implementation through environmental analysis 
and assessments is strengthened. The project will support Member States in understanding the science of the 
environment through education and capacity building programs which take into account their needs and national 
circumstances. Output 4: Relevant stakeholders and experts supported to generate knowledge that increase 
collaboration and strengthen the generation of relevant scientific data. The project aims to increase 
understanding of environmental issues through building a strong evidence base for intergovernmental and expert-led assessments. This will be achieved through different knowledge generation projects and processes, 
including the Adhoc Global Assessments Dialogue. Output 5: Policy makers at the national and regional level 
receive support to better integrate environmental assessment findings and policy recommendations into policy 
making and policy implementation. This part of the project will help foster greater understanding of the findings 
in assessments, leading to more evidence-based decision-making that encourage action on these environmental 
issues by policymakers. Through these last three outputs, knowledge and education products will be created to 
explain the policy pathways that can be taken to address the root causes of environmental degradation as well 
as how to restore degraded ecosystems. 
The project falls under the new ‘Science-Policy Foundational Sub-programme’ in UNEP’s Medium-term Strategy 
(2022-2025) and the PoW 2022-2023. The project will be conducted through the three successive PoWs for 
biennia 2022-2023, 2024-25, 2026-2027, leading to the delivery of GEO-7 and preparations for GEO-8 along with 
their accompanying Summaries for Policymakers in 2025 or early 2026 and continuing with translations