It is important for the sake of humankind’s continued existence that our environment is cared for. In our various economic endeavours around the world, we have created processes that negatively affect the environment, and this is of immediate concern to us. This is why in Stockholm the UN has organised a meeting to discuss the measures the world’s nations can take to correct the damages done and how to better take care of our world.
On the first day of the meeting Carl XVl Gustaf, the King of Sweden, delivered the opening remarks at the international meeting in Stockholm to commemorate fifty years since the landmark United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. The two-day meeting, “Stockholm+50: A healthy planet for the prosperity of all,” opened Thursday, 2 June, with a “Commemorative Moment” of dance and multimedia performance, and the election of the Co-Presidents, Magdalena Andersson, Prime Minister of Sweden, and Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya. Delegates proceeded to adopt the agenda and organization of work and elect officers.
The opening plenary heard contributions by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Secretary-General of Stockholm+50 and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme Inger Andersen.
An afternoon plenary session for general debate followed in parallel with the first of three Leadership Dialogues, which was on the urgent need for actions to achieve a healthy planet and prosperity for all. With regular rounds of applause greeting contributions to the Dialogue panel, participants signalled an intent to rise to the prompts from the organizers by “speaking with courage” and departing from the conventional language of “calculation” and “positioning” to speak truth to power.
In a remarkable convergence of inter-generational messaging, a seasoned US diplomat and a youth delegate from Uganda displayed a meeting of minds on the state of climate politics.
Vanessa Nakate, the founder of the youth-led Rise Up Movement, Uganda, called for honest acknowledgement that leaders, presented with the best available science, have denied and delayed action and risk handing young people a broken world. John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, US, agreed with Nakate, stating that some leaders in the twenty major economies have been indifferent to the math and physics of climate change. He also noted that the war in Ukraine was being used by people who prefer the energy status quo when the message of the war is about energy independence and freedom from the threat of petro-dictators. He cautioned that the world risked drifting into a “suicide pact”.
On day 2, the Climate action group “Fridays for Future” held a protest at Stockholm+50 today.
The Fridays for Future and Rise up Movement protest call for an international treaty to prevent fossil fuel exploration and expansion to limit global warming and preserve biodiversity.
Mana Omar, a climate activist from Kenya (joint host of the meeting), said that for the people of her country, the climate crisis is a lived reality.
“Coming from the Global South, we have been left to deal with the climate crisis, while Africa contributes only 4 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions,” said Omar. “We have the solutions. Let’s implement them. We have the knowledge. Let us use it. We have nature. Let us restore her. We cannot eat oil. We cannot adapt to loss and damage,” she said.
The meeting is being held in good-natured faith and will, without the often existent presence of political debacles. It is therefore hoped that good results are found and implemented for our world, to help Mother Nature,
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish