Colin Neil Waters , Simon Turner, Zhisheng An, Anthony Barnosky, Alejandro Cearreta, Andrew Cundy, Ian Fairchild, Barbara Fiałkiewicz-Kozieł, Agnieszka Gałuszka, Jacques Grinevald, Irka Hajdas, Yongming Han, Martin J. Head, Juliana Assunção Ivar do Sul, Catherine Jeandel, Reinhold Leinfelder, Francine McCarthy, John McNeill, Eric Odada, Naomi Oreskes, Clément Poirier, Daniel deB Richter, Neil Rose, Yoshiki Saito, William Shotyk, Colin Summerhayes, Jaia Syvitski , Davor Vidas, Michael Wagreich, Mark Williams, Scott Wing, Jan Zalasiewicz, Jens Zinke

This is the Executive Summary of a report produced by the membership of the Anthropocene Working Group as part of a submission to the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy to seek formalisation of the Anthropocene as an epoch of geological time. It summarises the content of two reports and their associated appendices which provide a background to: the history of usage of the term Anthropocene, when the proposed epoch started, the characterisation of the Anthropocene geological deposits and their stratigraphic value, the recognition of the Anthropocene in different sedimentary environments, the rank and duration of the Anthropocene, the proposed Global boundary Stratigraphic Section and Point and supporting Standard Auxiliary Boundary Sections.