SI UN Representative, Beatrice Oluoch reports from Stockholm +50: A Healthy Planet for the Prosperity of All – Our Responsibility, Our Opportunity (2-3 June 2022).

“In 2021, the United Nations General Assembly, through resolution 75/280, resolved to convene an international meeting in Stockholm to commemorate 50 years since the landmark 1972 Conference on the Human Environment.

In preparation for Stockholm+50, a series of preparatory meetings were held, including national consultations that generated recommendations and links to national policy frameworks. Regional multi-stakeholder consultations were organised in April and May 2022. These facilitated engagement of stakeholders in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and West Asia. Informal working groups were also organised around the themes of the leadership dialogues. In addition, a group of young people from different youth constituencies and youth-focused entities convened in the Stockholm+50 Youth Task Force.

The Stockholm+50 international meeting took place from 2-3 June 2022 in Stockholm, Sweden. This meeting was momentous in that it was being held 50 – years after the landmark 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment—the first ever UN conference on the environment (held in Stockholm) which founded UNEP, and now in 2022, Stockholm was once again the meeting/gathering point, to take stock of the state of the human environment, and collectively brainstorm on how to move forward, particularly against the background of a global pandemic and a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

The 2-day meeting was co-hosted by Sweden and Kenya and was focused on 3 key themes:

• Achieving a healthy planet and prosperity for all;
• A sustainable and inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic; and
• Implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development.

World leaders, representatives from governments, businesses, international organisations, civil society and youth met at Stockholm+50 to drive action toward a healthy planet for prosperity.

Over 4,000 people, including several Heads of State and Government and more than 60 ministers, participated in the conference, over 50 side events, and the Action Hub.

Heads of State and Government, ministers and other senior officials delivered statements over the two-day meeting, both in person and through pre-recorded messages. Key topics that emerged from plenary statements and discussions included:

• Progress achieved since 1972;
• The challenge of the triple planetary crisis
• The need for political will and for countries to honor their existing commitments
• The importance of multilateralism and stakeholder engagement
• Economic issues
• The importance of financial and technological assistance for developing countries
• The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Legal issues
• War and conflict, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine; and
• National and regional actions.

The main outcome of the meeting were 10 key recommendations for accelerating action towards a healthy planet for the prosperity of all, and these emerged from deliberations of Member States and stakeholders (through the plenary) and 3 leadership dialogues.

The following 10 recommendations (and actions for implementation) are as follows:

• Place human well-being at the center of a healthy planet and prosperity of all.

How?: Through recognising that a healthy planet is a prerequisite for peaceful, cohesive and prosperous societies; restoring our relationship with nature by integrating ethical values; and adopting a fundamental change in attitudes, habits, and behaviours, to support our common prosperity)

• Recognise and implement the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

How?: Through fulfilling the vision articulated in principle 1 of the 1972 Stockholm Declaration.

• Adopt system wide change in the way our current economic system work to contribute to a healthy planet.

How?: Through defining and adopting new measures of progress and human well-being, supported by economic and fiscal policies that account for the value of the environment; investing in infrastructure, developing effective policy and encouraging a global dialogue to promote sustainable consumption and production; and promoting phase out of fossil fuels while providing targeted support to the poorest and most vulnerable in line with national circumstances and recognising the need for financial and technical support towards a just transition.

• Strengthen national implementation of existing commitments for a healthy planet

How?: Through enhancing environmental national legislation, budget, planning processes and institutional frameworks; promoting evidence-based policymaking, including by enhanced collaboration between academic disciplines and thematic scientific panels, drawing on insights and expertise from indigenous and traditional knowledge; and scaling-up capacity support and development, access to and financing for environmentally sound technologies.

• Align public and private financial flows with environmental, climate and sustainable development commitments.

How?: Through developing and implementing well-designed policies to repurpose environmentally harmful subsidies; redirecting, mobilising and scaling up the availability of public and private financial flows to support economic diversification; and adopting recovery and stimulus measures, blended sources of capital, and de-risking instruments that augment financial flows.

• Accelerate system-wide transformation of high impact sectors, such as food, energy, water, buildings and construction, manufacturing, and mobility.

How?: Through adopting and implementing policies to promote circularity, resource efficiency, regenerative production approaches and nature-based solutions in value chains, and adopting frameworks that enhance and reinforce transparency and accountability by business; promoting just transitions through support for impacted youth, labour, and local communities by strengthening capacities and skills for the creation of green jobs and for micro, small and medium enterprises; and transforming food systems by promoting regenerative farming and fisheries approaches that provide healthy diets and minimise food waste, including investments in the ocean economy.

• Rebuild relationships of trust for strengthened cooperation and solidarity.

How?: Through recognising the importance of developed country leadership in promoting sustainability transitions; supporting capacity building and technology transfer for national efforts by developing countries to implement internationally agreed environmental agreements, taking into account national circumstances, including honouring the commitment to mobilise $100 billion every year for climate finance for developing countries; and enabling all relevant stakeholders including youth, women, rural communities, indigenous peoples, interfaith groups and local communities to participate meaningfully in policy formulation and implementation at both national and international level.

• Reinforce and reinvigorate the multilateral system

How?: Through ensuring an effective rules-based multilateral system that supports countries in delivering on their national and global commitments, to ensure a fair and effective multilateralism; strengthening environmental rule of law, including by promoting convergence and synergies within the UN system and between Multilateral Environmental Agreements; strengthening the United Nations Environment program, in line with the UNEP@50Political Declaration.

• Recognise intergenerational responsibility as a cornerstone of sound policy making. 

How?: Through engaging with the Stockholm+50 Global Youth Task Force Policy Paper; highlighting the important need of building the capacity of young people to engage with financial institutions; recognising the critical role of young people in environmental action, and highlight that progress has been made on fostering meaningful youth engagement, and calling upon the multilateral environmental funds to include youth-inclusive parameters in funding schemes, and further take steps to ensure ease of access of funds for environmental action for youth-led organisations.

• Take forward the Stockholm +50 outcomes.

How?: Through reinforcing and reenergising the ongoing international processes, including a global framework for biodiversity, an implementing agreement for the protection of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, and the development of a new plastics convention; and engaging with the relevant conferences, such as the 2022 UN Ocean Conference, High Level Political Forum, the 27^th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and Summit of the Future.

The meeting output/outcome achieved the 3 Stockholm + 50 principles of engagement namely:

• Intergenerational Responsibility
• Inclusive participation and interconnections and
• Implementation opportunities

The Youth emerged/were acknowledged as a critical constituency for articulating demands of young people, and advancing the interest of future generations.

The meeting ended on an optimistic note, with delegates looking forward to engaging further and moving the conversations forward in upcoming multilateral environmental agreement meetings and summits in the near future.”