The Governing Council,
Pursuing its functions and responsibilities as outlined in General Assembly resolution
2997 (XXVII) of 15 December 1972, including to keep under review the world environmental
situation in order to ensure that emerging environmental problems of wide international significance
are prioritized and receive appropriate and adequate consideration by Governments, and to promote
the contribution of the relevant international scientific and other professional communities to the
acquisition, assessment and exchange of environmental knowledge and information,
Recalling its decisions 22/1 of 7 February 2003 on early warning, assessment and monitoring,
23/6 of 25 February 2005 on keeping the world environmental situation under review, SS.X/5 of
22 February 2008 on the Global Environment Outlook: environment for development, and 25/2 of
20 February 2009 on the world environmental situation,
Noting the findings contained in a number of environmental assessment reports and
publications released since the twenty-fifth session of the Governing Council/Global Ministerial
Environment Forum, in particular those prepared by the United Nations Environment Programme in
cooperation with partners and presented in the report of the Executive Director on the state of the
environment and the contribution of the United Nations Environment Programme to addressing
substantive environmental challenges,5
Noting also the findings of scientific environmental assessments conducted between 2009 and
2011,6 including the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in that period and
earlier,
Expressing concern that the documented environmental degradation and widespread changes
resulting from human activity together with natural processes and the loss of ecosystem services are
barriers to the attainment of internationally agreed sustainable development goals,
Welcoming with appreciation efforts by the United Nations Environment Programme to
increase the impact of its scientific assessments by improving their coherence and scientific rigour and
to build regional and national capacities for environmental data collection, information and
assessment, performed in cooperation with other United Nations entities, national Governments,
non-governmental organizations and other partners,
Recognizing that a core mandate of the United Nations Environment Programme is to keep
under review the world environmental situation and provide policy-relevant guidance in addressing
emerging environmental problems in response to the findings of key scientific assessments, and that
the United Nations Environment Programme, through the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of
the Global Environment Facility, in addition to its mandate for providing scientific and technological
advice to the Global Environment Facility as a financial mechanism of global conventions, is
responsible for identifying emerging environmental issues,
Recalling section III of its decision 25/2, by which it called for a set of requirements for a
migration to targeted assessments on thematic priority areas supported by a UNEP-Live enabling
framework, section II of its decision 25/2 on improvements to the international environmental
assessment landscape and section I A of its decision 22/1 on strengthening the scientific base of the
United Nations Environment Programme,
Mindful of the needs articulated in the Bali Strategic Plan for Technology Support and
Capacity-building, such as capacity-building in developing countries and countries with economies in
transition to improve the management of environmental data and information for environmental
assessment, reporting and early warning,
Welcoming the report submitted by the Executive Director in response to section III of
decision 25/2,7