UNEP has, for more than a decade, been stimulating global partnerships, such as GRID, to facilitate the generation and exchange of environmental data and information. More recently, a partnership forged between the ESA and UNEP has created the bases for a global telecommunications network - the Mercure. UNEP, though its UNEPnet services provided by Mercure, provides reliable, accurate and up-to-date environmental information that stimulates improved environmental management. This report consists of two parts. The first part of the report presents keynote addresses delivered during the inauguration of the UNEPnet Programme and the UNEPnet/Mercure Station in Arendal Norway on September 3, 1997. The second part of the report features keynote papers from the executive seminar The Role of Information Technology in Environmental Awareness-raising, Policy-Making, Decision-Making, and Development Aid held on the occasion of the inauguration of the UNEPnet Programme and the UNEPnet/Mercure Station.