The flagship publication of the UN Environment Programme is the Global Environment Outlook (GEO), where the UNEP Key Polar Centre has fulfilled the role as the regional coordinator and co-lead author (with Gateway Antarctica) for the polar sections.
Global Environment Outlook 4 is due for publication in 2007, and is complemented by the annual GEO Yearbook. GEO and GEO Yearbook reports are available on the UNEP GEO web-site.
In the GEO series of publication, a special thematic report on polar regions and their role in the world was launched in June 2007 - Global Outlook for Ice & Snow. This report was prepared by an editorial team at the UNEP Key Polar Centre, with more than 70 contributing experts, as a comphrensive assessment and a contribution for the International Polar Year.
An initiative that started with the Arctic, which has later been applied to other parts of the world is the GLOBIO programme. GLOBIO (Global Methodology for Mapping Human Impacts on the Biosphere) has been developed in cooperation with UNEP-WCMC and MNP and the secretariat is headed by UNEP/GRID-Arendal. This methodology assesses and maps the current and future extents of human impact on ecosystems, by identifying the wilderness areas in the World. Read more on the GLOBIO web-site, which includes reports, maps and video clips.
Other assessment projects are undertaken in cooperation with partners, such as UNEP-WCMC, Arctic Council working groups, the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme (CBMP) and the WWF Arctic Programme.