Policy gaps for major regional environment issues will be identified by experts at a two-day UN meeting which concludes at the Gulf Hotel today.

Participants are pinpointing existing policies that should be maintained or replicated in other environment sectors and discovering new, innovative and integrated policies that have the potential and promise to meet selected goals, at the two-day regional consultation of the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) Fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5).

They are also examining the alignment of international and regional environment goals, the progress made, the effectiveness of implementation and the next step.

Opinions put forward at the meeting will contribute to the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) Fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5), which will be launched on World Environment Day on June 5 in 2012.

The regional consultation meeting of the GEO-5 is held under the patronage of Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife head Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

By the end of today's meeting experts would have decided on between three to five priority environmental issues or challenges facing West Asia and settle on one internationally agreed goal for each of them.

They will also name the GEO-5 key target audience in light of the region's priorities and selected global goals.

The aim is to engage those groups, through outreach, in the assessment development and ensure that the GEO-5 process is an audience-driven, responsive process and so that the report's findings are relevant.

Government and multi-stakeholders are requested to nominate regional experts who will participate in GEO-5 production as lead or contributing authors for the regional chapter.

West Asia Regional consultation is an important step in the preparation process for the production of the final report GEO-5 where governmental and stakeholder groups engage in face to face discussions with the aim of identifying the policy gaps that hinder progress towards meeting environmental goals selected by regions.

The report will reflect the outcomes of regional consultations including regional priorities, recommendations, agreed goals and key target audiences.

GEO-5 will also take a global and regional look at the environment and support developing countries in gearing up their capacity building to overcome environmental and financial barriers.

The GEO-5 is different from other GEO reports because it shifts from assessing priority problems towards assessing priority solutions. The report brings to the forefront a set of internationally agreed goals, including the Millennium Development Goals and those related to air quality, biodiversity, energy, chemical waste, climate change, energy, oceans and seas, land degradation, desertification and environmental governance.-TradeArabia News Service