The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released a report on Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth ahead of the Rio+20 conference being held in June 2012. This week also sees the release of UNEP’s Fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5) Summary for Policy Makers on the state, trends and outlooks of the global environment.

Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth

“Decoupling represents a strategic approach for moving forward a global Green Economy– one that results in improved humanwell-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities” 

UN Under Secretary-General Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director

This report by UNEP’s International Resource Panel is an important part of the overall discourse around a Green Economy, in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, in the lead up to Rio+20. It provides empirical evidence on the levels of natural resources being consumed by humanity and the likely consumption levels if past trends are mirrored into the future, and brings forward the powerful and urgent concept of ‘decoupling’ as a key action in order to catalyse a dramatically different path.

Click here to read the full report and access related materials.

GEO-5 Summary for Policy Makers

As a significant contribution to Rio+20, the fifth Global Environment Outlook builds on previous UNEP assessments and continues to provide an analysis of the state, trends and outlook of the global environment.

The Summary for Policy Makers is based on the scientific findings of the Global Environmental Outlook-5 report and aims to inform environmental decision-making while facilitating the interaction between science and policy.

The Summary for Policy Makers can be accessed here. The full assessment report will be released in early June.