The pan-European regional assessment under UN Environment’s sixth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6) has been presented to the Portuguese Minister of Environment and other government officials.

Following its launch at the Environment for Europe ministerial, outreach work has continued with a presentation of the report’s key findings at an open event organized by the General Secretariat of Portugal’s Environment Ministry in Lisbon, Portugal on 28 June 2016.

The report identifies air pollution and climate change as now being the two major threats to human health in the pan-European region and was presented in the Portuguese capital following World Environment Day – UN Environment’s biggest event for awareness raising on the environment.

The Secretary General of Environment Alexandra Carvalho opened the session, which was attended by around 40 people at the General Secretariat of Portugal’s Environment Ministry, including government staff and representatives of the media.

In a keynote address, the Portuguese Minister of Environment Joao Pedro Matos Fernandes highlighted the importance of sharing information and lessons learned through processes such as GEO.

In a video message, UN Environment’s Regional Director for Europe Jan Dusik noted that the report comes at a time when the world is on a new course to combat climate change and unleash actions and investment towards a low carbon, resource-efficient, resilient and sustainable future. However, “living within our planetary boundaries will require fundamental transitions in energy, food, mobility and urban systems,” he underlined, adding: “the GEO assessment forms a basis for policymakers to take action”.

The UN Environment Regional Office for Europe focal point for the science-policy interface was joined by the Scientific Co-Chair of the GEO-6 Assessment for the pan-European region – Prof. Diana Mangalagiu from Oxford University. Together, they delivered the technical presentations and participated in the discussion panel that took place during this half-day session in Lisbon. They presented the key findings from the assessment and informed participants on the details of the process for developing the report based on expert and intergovernmental consultations and a sound peer review process.

At the discussion panel that followed the presentations participants asked questions and took part in a rich discussion. Highlights of this dialogue included the use of regional data by the authors, transnational cooperation and the importance of countries’ engagement in the GEO assessment process, and use of assessment findings at national level.

In order to view the report please click here.

Outreach work on GEO-6 will continue with a presentation of findings for the pan-European region at a UN Environment-Global Resource Information Database conference on science, business and environment in Warsaw on September 15.

For more information please contact matthew.billot@unep.org or tomas.marques@unep.org