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Module the Millennium Development Goals (Goal 7 on Environmental Sustainability). The GEO Cities initiative
1 extends the Global Environment Outlook assessment and reporting process and the underlying IEA

methodology to the municipal level.

The major objectives of the GEO Cities initiative are:

Establish an integrated environmental assessment process that acknowledges the links between
?
9-12 December, 2013 ? ? environmental conditions and human activities;

Contribute to local capacity development on IEA in the urban environment;

Establish a consensus on the most critical environmental problems in each participating city, and to
formulate and implement urban strategies and plans to help cities improve urban environmental

Promote the creation of networks of institutions in each city assessed.
? management; and
Today, the GEO Cities initiative in LAC includes more than 30 cities. In Africa, Asia and the Pacific

and Europe, discussion and consultations are underway to initiate similar environmental reporting
for selected cities, possibly including Nairobi, Lusaka, Dakar, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Shenzhen
(China).

The GEO Mexico City Environment Outlook responds to Decision 11 (Environment Indicators) of the
Forum of Ministers of Environment of Latin America and the Caribbean, which requested UNEP to
continue the development of sectoral and targeted assessments using the GEO approach, especially in
the assessment of urban areas.

Geographical scope

The Mexico City report (PNUMA and CentroGeo 2003) is an example of a municipal level IEA in the
GEO Cities initiative. The reporting program covers the Metropolitan Zone of Mexico City (MZMC),
the biggest urban area in Latin America and the Caribbean. The MZMC is located in the middle of three
great mountain ranges that unite in the center of Mexico, the Sierra Madre Oriental, the Sierra Madre
Occidental, and the Neo-volcanic mountain range.

When it was done

The GEO Mexico City initiative started in November 2001 and was completed in November 2003.
The initial results of the assessment were reviewed by specialists at a workshop held in November
2002. That was followed by a consultation on the final draft conducted in September 2003 involving
governmental officials, academics, representatives of NGOs and representatives of the private sector.

36 The GEO Approach to Integrated Environmental Assessment