Geo Year Book 2007

The Statesman's Yearbook , now in a new, enlarged format, contains profiles of every country in the world and includes 20% new content. All print purchases now receive online access at no extra cost, with a single-user licence giving access to the full text online, updated regularly and fully searchable. For queries - [email protected]

How do we take stock of the state and direction of the world’s environment, and what can we learn from the experience? Among the myriad detailed narratives about the condition of the planet, the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) reports—issued by the United Nations Environment Programme—stand out as the most ambitious. For nearly three decades the GEO project has not only delivered iconic global assessment reports, but through its multitude of contributors has inspired hundreds of similar processes worldwide from the regional to the local level. This book provides an inside account of the evolution of the GEO project from its earliest days. Building on meticulous research, including interviews with former heads of the United Nations Environment Programme, diplomats, leading contributing scientists, and senior leaders of collaborating organizations, the story is told from the perspective of five GEO veterans who all played a pivotal role in shaping the periodic assessments. The GEO’s history provides striking insights and will save valuable time to those who commission, design and conduct, as well as critique and improve, assessments of environmental development in the next decade.

Sustainability Appraisal is a sourcebook of the state-of-the-art of this rapidly emerging and diversifying area. It draws on a wealth of international experiences and approaches to illustrate the status and scope of Sustainability Appraisal/Assessment (SA) This comprehensive guide highlights how SA can be used to analyse and integrate the key environmental, social and economic pillars of sustainability into decision-making at all levels, from policy to project to investment, by government, business and industry, or international organizations. Distilling both published and unpublished materials, and with contributions from a range of leading experts, organizations and agencies, this book will be of significant value to professionals everywhere who are in need of a solid, reference guide to what constitutes SA practice and, more importantly, how and when it can be applied.

This is the fourth in the series of annual reports linked to the UNEP Global Environment Outlook (GEO) which seeks to bridge the gap between science and policy by reviewing major global and regional environmental issues and policy developments during the year 2006. The 2007 Year Book includes global and regional overviews of significant developments over the past year. It highlights linkages among ecosystem health, human well-being, and economic development; examines new thinking on the value of ecosystem services and the threat from ecosystem degradation; and describes recent research findings and policy decisions that affect our awareness and response to global change. A special feature analyses the intersection between environment and globalisation where ecosystem services and the human well-being that depends on those services are affected by natural resource exploitation in response to global demands. The chapter also explores some of the innovative policy mechanisms that link global supplies of goods and services with sustainable development objectives. The emerging scientific and policy challenges of nanotechnology are examined from an environmental perspective. Nanotechnology will bring environmental benefits but it is vital that appropriate assessment and legislative processes are adopted to address the unique challenges presented by nanomaterials and their life cycles.

In 2002 children made history when they gathered in the United Nations to address the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children in New York. It was the first time in UN history that children formally addressed the General Assembly on behalf of children. It was a landmark, the first such Session devoted exclusively to children and the first to include children as official delegates. It was evident to all who attended the Session in 2002 that "a world fit for children" would not be built without the participation of children themselves. This booklet is a report to the children on the progress the world has made in their name in the five years since.