Megatrends, Emerging Issues and Outlooks

As with past Global Environment Outlooks (GEOs),
once the current state of the environment and
policy response is assessed, it is important to look at
possible policy pathways to a more sustainable future. With
recent developments at the international level in late 2015,
namely the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, this sustainable future is
more easily defined.

The GEO series became more quantitative as it evolved
from GEO-1 through GEO-4; GEO-5 was the first to include
regional assessments focusing on policies; and GEO-6 is
the first to include a regional outlook. This outlook uses a
qualitative approach, similar to that of GEO-5, but at the
regional scale.

This chapter has four main parts. Section 4.1 reviews
previous similar outlooks. Section 4.2 provides a macro-level
discussion of pressures and outlooks for elements such as
population, natural capital, infrastructure development, and
natural disasters and risks. Section 4.3 surveys important
emerging issues. Section 4.4 reviews regional and subregional
outlooks, and finally the last section 4.5 discusses
transformative pathways and the SDGs.