New Delhi: The Stockholm+50 environment conference has called for real commitments to urgently address global environmental concerns, and for a just transition to sustainable economies, that work for all.
The two-day conference came to an end on Friday, with a statement from co-hosts Sweden and Kenya, drawn from member states and stakeholders through the meeting’s plenaries and leadership dialogues, which recommended placing human well-being at the center of a healthy planet and prosperity for all.
The statement contained several recommendations including, implementing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; adopting system-wide changes in the way our current economic system works, and accelerating transformations of high-impact sectors.
“We came to Stockholm 50 years after the UN Conference on the Human Environment knowing that something must change. Knowing that, if we do not change, the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste, will only accelerate,” said Inger Andersen, Secretary-General of Stockholm+50, and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
The UNEP chief urged the participants to “take forward this energy, this commitment to action, to shape our world.”
General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid reminded us that the policies we implement today “will shape the world we live in tomorrow”.
“Governments and the private sector have an important role to play in rethinking strategies to target structural barriers that have hindered women’s participation in labour forces, he said.
“The workplace of the future must be rooted in equity and free of discrimination and harmful stereotypes about women’s skills, work ethic, leadership abilities or intellect.”
Success means instilling gender equity practices embodied in legal protections, robust enforcement mechanisms, and deep structural and cultural change, he added.
Mr Shahid urged everyone to discuss constructively “how we can secure not only a more gender-equal recovery – but a gender-equal world.”
“We believe that we have – collectively – mobilized and used the potential of this meeting. We now have a blueprint of acceleration to take further,” said Sweden’s Minister for Climate and the Environment, Annika Strandhäll.
“Stockholm+50 has been a milestone on our path towards a healthy planet for all, leaving no one behind.”
Stockholm+50 featured four plenary sessions in which leaders made calls for bold environmental action to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Three Leadership Dialogues, hundreds of side events, associated events and webinars and a series of regional multi-stakeholder consultations in the run-up to the meeting, enabled thousands of people around the world to engage in discussions and put forward their views.
“The variety of voices and bold messages that have emerged from these two days demonstrate a genuine wish to live up to the potential of this meeting and build a future for our children and grandchildren on this, our only planet,” said Keriako Tobiko, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for the Environment.
Stockholm+50 featured four plenary sessions in which leaders made calls for bold environmental action to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Three leadership dialogues, hundreds of side events – including several youth-led sessions – and webinars, as well as a series of regional multi-stakeholder consultations in the run-up to the meeting, enabled thousands of people around the world to engage in discussions and put forward their views.
Stockholm+50 is an international meeting, hosted by the Government of Sweden, convened by the United Nations General Assembly to be held in Stockholm, Sweden, from 2-3 June 2022.
It will commemorate 50 years since the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment, which made the environment a pressing global issue for the first time.
Some 113 countries attended, and participants adopted a series of principles on the environment, including the Stockholm Declaration and Action Plan for the Human Environment.
