GEO-6 for Youth is a one-stop-shop for a young person to understand the state of the environment, what they can do every day to drive markets to adopt environmentally sustainable products and services and how to develop their skills and choose environmentally sustainable careers.

The report provides background to help understand the issues, but most importantly shows how youth have the power to bring about transformative change for the environment.

GEO-6 for Youth is UNEP’s first fully interactive e-publication and provides engaging multimedia content and interactive features to inform, engage, educate, and lead to youth action. Several case studies and interviews appear in the report, including small-scale, community-led projects and individual guides to developing the appropriate skills for green jobs and daily sustainable actions.
A gender and geographically balanced team of 28 young authors from across the world worked on the report using the GEO’s co-creation model.

The report aims to:
Translate high-level, scientific messages on the state of the environment for a youth audience (ages 15 to 24),
Define how youth can bring about transformational change by creating and accessing environmentally sustainable jobs,
Identify daily sustainability actions that can change market dynamics to achieve an environmentally sustainable world by 2050.
The GEO-6 for Youth report consists of four chapters:
• Chapter 1 – Our Changing Environment explores the impacts of human activities on environmental systems (land and
biodiversity, oceans and freshwater, air and climate). This chapter also touches upon the five key drivers of environmental change.
• Chapter 2 – Towards a Sustainable Future Earth introduces the current trajectory and environmentally sustainable scenarios from GEO-6, while exploring what these scenarios mean for the world’s youth.
• Chapter 3 – From Empathy to Action presents individual and collective actions young people can take which, if scaled up, would address environmental challenges associated with the food, energy and waste systems.
• Chapter 4 – Your Career, Our Future highlights the need for a shift in skills, and for new types of jobs, as we make progress towards a more environmentally sustainable world

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown once more that there is a strong link between planetary and human health. Research shows that 60 per cent of all known infectious diseases in humans and 75 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic. Unsustainable human activities, including exploitation of natural habitats and wildlife are increasing the developmentand spreading of infectious diseases.

Currently, 91 per cent of the world’s population lives in areas which are above the safe air quality limits set by WHO
guidelines. Outdoor air pollution could cause 6 to 9 million premature deaths a year by 2060 and cost 1 per cent of global GDP – around USD 2.6 trillion annually. Air pollution is expected to reduce the yield of staple crops such as wheat, maize and rice by 26 per cent by 2030.
• Changes in land use and land cover are occurring at an alarming rate. We are losing 12 million hectares of productive land every year due to drought and desertification. Particularly in areas prone to drought, the long-term consequences of changes in land use and land cover include biodiversity loss, food, water and fuel insecurity, unemployment, disrupted education, increased child labour, forced displacement and armed conflict.
• Currently, 50 per cent of habitable land is used for food production. Livestock production uses 77 per cent of agricultural land, but it provides only 16 per cent of humans’ energy needs and 32 per cent oftheir protein needs. Livestock production contributes very significantly to climate change and is a major source of land and water degradation.
• Globally we face a tremendous loss of biodiversity. We are in the midst of a major species extinction. An estimated 1 million out of 8 million plant and animal species on Earth are at risk of extinction, many within decades. Extractive industries, such as mining and agriculture, are responsible for more than 80 per cent of biodiversity loss.
• Human activities have affected 40 per cent of the world’s oceans. The impacts of these activities include exhaustion of fish stocks, loss of habitats, coral reef bleaching, and pollution by plastic debris. On average, 8 million tons of plastic waste finds its way into the oceans annually. Only some 9 percent of the world’s waste plastic is being recycled, while the rest is dumped in the natural environment. Tiny plastic particles (microplastics) are found in, for example, seafood, sea salt, and tap and bottled water. Scientists are concerned about the implications for both marine life and human health.
• Only 3 per cent of global water resources is freshwater. Only 0.5 per cent of this freshwater is suitable for drinking. More than 2.1 billion people do not have access to freshwater at home. When children are required to fetch water, they have less time to spend at school.
• One-third of edible food (an estimated 1.3 billion tons annually) is lost or wasted globally. This is enough to feed as many as 2 billion people every year