Environmental Challenges Across Income Groups: Millennium Institute’s Contribution to GEO-7

fernandoredivo
2 days ago
3 min read

The global environmental crisis does not manifest in the same way everywhere. Yet the systems that drive it, such as production, consumption, trade, and governance, are deeply interconnected.

This insight lies at the core of the Global Environment Outlook 7 (GEO-7), coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). GEO-7 brings together global and regional analyses to assess the state of the environment and explore solution pathways for transformative change.

As part of this major effort, the Millennium Institute contributed to selected analytical components of GEO-7, focusing on how environmental pressures and solutions differ across income groups and regions, and what these differences imply for policy design. MI contributed to Chapter 19 (Implications for Different Development Contexts) and Chapter 20 (Regional Dimensions of the Transformative Solutions for the Global Environmental Crises), with some fundamental pieces of analysis.

Environmental challenges across development contexts

Chapter 19 examines how five core systems (economic, energy, agriculture, circularity and sustainable materials, and environment) must transform across different development contexts, through both technological and behavioural change. For this, countries were grouped using established World Bank income categories (high-, middle-, and low-income), complemented by additional dimensions such as region, population density, and trade status.

Within this framework, MI contributed to the analysis of each system, focusing on selected environmental challenges characteristic of each income group and identifying potential solution pathways.

Across income categories, distinct patterns emerge:

In high-income countries, environmental pressures are often displaced through global supply chains, transferring impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and biodiversity loss to other regions. Policy responses discussed include tariff-based mechanisms, changes in consumption patterns, and technology transfer.
In middle-income countries, rapid economic growth can outpace environmental regulation and stewardship. Proposed responses emphasise incentives for clean technology adoption and mechanisms that enable citizens to demand stronger environmental action from governments and corporations.
In low-income countries, environmental degradation is frequently linked to the need to over-exploit natural resources to meet immediate development needs. Solutions highlight the importance of sustainable technologies for food production and resource management, access to climate adaptation finance, and local capacity for managing nature-based solutions.

Although these challenges differ across contexts, they are interconnected through global systems of trade, finance, and governance. Actions taken in one income group can generate environmental impacts in others, underscoring the importance of coordinated and context-sensitive policy approaches.

GEO-7 Regional perspectives and modelling insights

In Chapter 20, which explores the regional dimensions of transformative solutions, Millennium Institute contributed a regional case study based on its work on green hydrogen using the iSD modelling framework. This case study builds on earlier research, The Green Hydrogen Economy: Challenges and Opportunities for National Development, which examines the potential role of green hydrogen in supporting integrated energy, environmental, and development objectives.

The main chapter draws on literature reviews and global modelling led by partner institutions, and the case study illustrates how systems science and modeling can support policy analysis by exploring trade-offs, synergies, and long-term impacts across sectors.

Looking ahead

GEO-7 highlights the scale and urgency needed to address environmental challenges, while emphasising that effective responses must account for differing development contexts and systemic interconnections. Contributions from institutions around the world, including the Millennium Institute, reflect the importance of collaborative, evidence-based approaches to informing environmental policy.

As environmental pressures increasingly intersect with development goals and social and economic priorities, translating global assessments into context-appropriate and coordinated action remains a central challenge for policymakers and practitioners alike.