The sixth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6) assesses the state of the environment, the effectiveness of policy and other responses in addressing environmental challenges, and the possible pathways for achieving various internationally agreed environmental goals. It differs from and complements other global assessments (see Annex 1) in its scope and integrated nature. GEO-6 is more holistic in its analysis, whereas other assessments tend to focus more narrowly on, for example, biodiversity and ecosystem services (the Intergovernmental Science- Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services [IPBES]), climate change (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]) or the marine environment (the World Ocean Assessment).

The GEO-6, entitled Healthy Planet, Healthy People (United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP] 2019a) and its Summary for Policymakers (UNEP 2019b), provides evidence-based environmental information to help policymakers and other decision makers to achieve the environmental mandates of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030) and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), together with other internationally agreed environmental goals, as well as to implement multilateral, regional and global environmental agreements. The theme Healthy Planet, Healthy People links the environmental dimension of the SDGs to their human and social dimensions. GEO-6 assesses recent scientific knowledge and data, analyses current and past environmental policies (including their objectives and consequences), and identifies options to achieve sustainable development by 2050. ﹛Chapter 1; Summary for Policymakers [SPM]﹜. This explains why there have been changes in the context, focus and methods of GEO-6 compared with previous GEOs.

This Technical Summary synthesizes the key evidence and messages of GEO-6. Chapter 1 sets out the context and methodological approach of the GEO-6 assessment. It is followed by chapters that:

• ❖ discuss the five drivers affecting the health of the planet: trends in human population, combined with economic development; growth of consumption; rapid urbanization; accelerating technological innovation; and climate change (Chapter 2);

• ❖ review the impacts of broad systemic activities (called cross-cutting issues in the GEO-6) and the health, equity and economic dimensions of these impacts (Chapter 3); collectively providing evidence that the planet is becoming increasingly unhealthy;.

• ❖ review the literature and undertake case studies on policy implementation to show how policies are struggling to keep up with the rate and scale of planetary degradation (Chapter 4);