This assessment, Global Environment Outlook 6: Regional assessment for West Asia, paints a comprehensive picture of the environmental factors contributing to human health and well-being at the regional level, and highlights the complexity of the interlinked environmental, social and economic challenges now confronting decision makers.
The assessment is structured in three main sections:
- Chapter 1 reviews the context and regional priorities established at the REIN conference and explains why each priority is of importance to the region. It considers peace, security and the environment together with the nexus elements for security (water, energy and food) in order to bridge regional priorities and establish common goals.
- Chapter 2 establishes the state of the environment in the region following seven key themes (water resources, land resources, coastal and marine resources, biodiversity, air, climate change, waste management). It provides an overview of regional priorities, analyses the key trends for each environmental issue, followed by possible policy-relevant options. Some of these options require increases in efficiency; others require departures from business-as-usual scenarios.
- Chapter 3 reviews the main trends that will affect the region’s environment in the future and analyses the actions needed to achieve a more sustainable future. It presents possible environmental outlooks for West Asia together with projected emerging environmental issues. The section also considers the role of teleconnections between West Asia and other regions, making the world smaller with respect to the environment. The Chapter presents a scenario (the Oryx scenario) with a vision of environmental and social sustainability and the tenets of sustainable environmental outlooks.