Lessons from global environmental assessments

The four assessments are unanimous in identifying the main global challenges in sustainable development

This report provides further insights, derived from four global assessments, into the areas of environment and sustainable development, which were published in 2007 and 2008:

• Global Environment Outlook 4: Environment for Development, published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2007).
• Climate Change 2007. Fourth Assessment Report, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007a, b, c and d).
• Environmental Outlook to 2030, published by the OECD (OECD, 2008).
• International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), which is supported by, amongst others, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank (IAASTD, 2008).

The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency has played an important role in bringing about these assessments. In this report some implications for policies of the Netherlands and the EU are highlighted. From the assessments, together counting over 5000 pages, two important areas have been singled out: land (agriculture, food and biodiversity) and energy (energy supply, climate change and air pollution).

Unanimous view on global challenges

While working with very different approaches, the four assessments are remarkably unanimous in identifying the main global challenges in sustainable development. Extreme hunger and poverty will not be halved by 2015 in all developing countries (UN Millennium Development Goals). The rate at which biodiversity is being lost will not be reduced by 2010 (a goal set in the Convention on Biological Diversity, the CBD) and the impacts of climate change will not remain within safe limits (the goal of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UNFCCC). Rapid action is, therefore, needed to bring these goals closer and to ensure that the world deals with land and energy in a more sustainable way.

Competition over land

Competition over land is a new theme that is highlighted by all the assessments, except for the climate assessment. The concerns about a secure and affordable food supply, the changes in diet (more and more people are eating meat), the maintaining of biodiversity and the demand for bio-energy, and the increase in land use by expanding urbanisation and infrastructures, all affect and are affected by the demand for land. Because further loss of biodiversity appears inevitable, priorities will need to be set in policies extending beyond 2010: which natural areas really must be preserved and should, therefore, be protected?

For more information visit the following websites:

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), The AR4 Synthesis Report (2007a)
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group I Report "The Physical Science Basis" (2007b)
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group II Report "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" (2007c)
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group III Report "Mitigation of Climate Change" (2007d)
• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Global Environment Outlook IV (2007)
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Environmental Outlook to 2030 (2008)