From 4–7 September 2023, the Seventh Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7) Policy and Outlooks Authors Meeting held in Qingpu District, Shanghai. The meeting is officially co-hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Tongji University. The session gathered top global environmental experts, policymakers, and business representatives to deepen the understanding of the challenges of environmental sustainability and with a solution-focused approach, jointly promote low-carbon development and sustainable processes.

The authors meeting took place with the representatives of the UN, GEO-7 authors, representatives of the Qingpu district of Shanghai Municipality, and other guests, who are from 37 countries. This meeting moved the Policy chapters towards zero order draft quality, continued the drafting of the Outlooks chapters towards zero-order draft quality, facilitated dialogue and collaboration between international assessment experts and Chinese policymakers to address environmental challenges on a global scale. Besides, it also raised the awareness of the GEO-7 process in China and attract media focus on key environmental issues.

In the plenary session, Ms. LIU Duo, Vice Mayor of Shanghai Municipal Government, Dr. Susan Gardner, Director of Ecosystems Division of UNEP, Prof. Edgar E. Gutierrez-Espeleta, Former Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica, GEO-7 Co-Chair, Dr. LIU Jian, Director of Early Warning and Assessment Division of UNEP, Dr. ZHANG Linxiu, Director of the UNEP-International Ecosystem Management Partnership, Ms. LIU Jin, Director-General of Department of International Cooperation and Exchange of Ministry of Education, Ms. ZHOU Guomei, Director-General of Department of International Cooperation of Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Mr. ZHANG Lubiao, Director-General of Foreign Economic Cooperation Center of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Mr. ZHAO Junqiang, Deputy Director of Department of Social Development of National Development and Reform Commission National Development and Reform Commission, Ms. LI Zhong, Deputy Director and Researcher of Energy Research Institute of National Development and Reform Commission, Mr. CHEN Qizhen, Director-General of Administrative Center for China’s Agenda 21, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ms. YANG Xiaojing, Vice-Chairman, Qingpu District Council, Director of the People's Government, Qingpu District of Shanghai Municipality, Mr. XIAO Hui，Deputy Director of the People's Government of Qingpu District of Shanghai Municipality, Prof. FANG Shou’en, Chairman of Tongji University Council, Prof. ZHENG Qinghua, President of Tongji University attended the opening ceremony and delivery the speeches.

Two important keynote reports were delivered byZhiqiang Wu, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Mr. Pierre Boileau, Head of Global Environment Outlook of UNEP. Besides, four roundtable dialogues arecarried out with the topics of Energy, Food, Waste/circularity and Environment system which are tied to the sustainable development.

The Global Environmental Outlook (GEO) is a series of reports that review the state and direction of the global environment, which conducted by UNEP. The process provides an assessment of the current state of the environment, an evaluation of the effectiveness of policies and actions taken to address environmental issues, and projections of future environmental trends. The resolution on the future of the GEO was approved by Member States in March 2022 and the drafting of GEO-7 is well underway. UNEP launched the preparation of the GEO-7 by holding its scoping meeting in Nairobi, Kenya from 17-21 October 2022 and the first authors meeting in Bangkok, Thailand from 13-17 March 2023.The first authors meeting agreed on the structure and content of each chapter with guidance from the Co-chairs of the assessment.