GEO-4 Interlinkages

The Environmental Law Institute applauds the publication of UNEP’s fourth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4): Environment for Development. Carl Bruch, ELI Senior Attorney and Co-Director of International Programs, is a contributing author to the chapter on “Interlinkages: Governance for Sustainability.“

The new report is the culmination of five years of extensive consultation with stakeholders in all regions of the world. It links findings on the state of the environment with policy analyses; incorporates historical, current, and future perspectives; and combines global perspectives with sub-global views. GEO-4 also highlights emerging environmental issues that require policy attention. The GEO-4 assessment used the 1987 report “Our Common Future” of the World Commission on Environment and Development as the baseline for the retrospective analysis of environmental trends and development in the past 20 years. It highlights both environment and development issues, focusing on human well-being and the role of environment in development.

ELI’s contribution to the report builds on its work to improve the integrated management of natural resources, including through synergetic implementation of multilateral environmental agreements. This includes, among other research, a paper co-authored with UNEP: Carl Bruch & Elizabeth Mrema, More than the Sum of its Parts: Improving Compliance with and Enforcement of International Environmental Agreements through Synergetic Implementation, Proceedings of the 4th Colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law (forthcoming).