This report is written at the request of UNEP, in support of the preparations for its 25th Session of the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, in February 2009. The overall goal of this synthesis report is to provide policymakers with highlighted key messages from recent global environmental assessments, including the fourth Global Environment Outlook: Environment for Development (GEO-4),published in 2008. The current report does not claim to provide a comprehensive and neutral overview of all assessments. Rather, it analyses whether messages from these assessments strengthen the findings of the GEO-4 and what insights they add to the central theme of GEO-4: environment for development. More specifically, the report looks across these assessments for key environmental challenges for the next decades and to possible policy interventions for dealing with these in a comprehensive manner. The assessments converge in identifying the main global environmental challenges in sustainable development. More than ever, competition for land emerges as a global issue. The assessments conclude, each in its own focal area, that many technical solutions are available and affordable for achieving the domestic and international targets. However, they display different perspectives on preferred policy options.