The meeting offered a forum for rich discussions including three multi-stakeholder leadership dialogues, a series of side and associated events, a UN Science Policy Business Forum, the One Planet Forum and a High-Level Segment of the triple COP of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions (the latter three preceding Stockholm+50, on 31 May – 1 June).

In the plenary meeting speakers stressed urgency for states to act on their commitments. UN Secretary General Guterres called on developed countries to support others, to abandon fossil fuel finance and shift to renewables, reduce deforestation, restore costal ecosystems and triple investments in nature-based solutions. He also underlined the human right to a clean and healthy environment and asked to go beyond GDP when measuring wealth.

Recurring issues addressed were:

• the triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution;
• the evident contradiction between striving to solve the environmental emergency and, at the same time, continuing a socio-economic and financial model that fuels environmental destruction;
• calls for “a social contract” setting a framework for a transformation of the socio-economic system towards nature positivity and ensuring fair sharing of burdens and benefits;
• the historical responsibility of the Global North as regards environmental burdens, and the need to fulfil existing financial pledges and to take responsibility for the current disparity in consumption footprints;
• the role of science, alongside the need to increase accountability and to find transparent ways to measure progress on the implementation of commitments;
• ending pervasive practices (environmentally harmful subsidies, investments that harm nature – especially fossil fuel extraction, deforestation);
• the importance of creating stable frameworks for sustainable investment (taxonomy) and the redirection of investments towards renewables, decarbonisation, circular value chains, nature-based solutions and inclusive business.

Commissioner Sinkevičius delivered a statement on behalf of the EU and its Member States, recalling the achievements over the past 50 years while pointing out the triple planetary crisis where we are dangerously close to potentially irreversible cascading tipping points in the earth system which would have dramatic consequences for all life on earth.

The three Leadership Dialogues contributed to the outcome of Stockholm+50 by yielding recommendations and messages for action at all levels. They aimed to engage governments, international organisations, business and industry, civil-society organisations and other relevant stakeholders in an exchange of ideas on opportunities to overcome barriers to implementation, connect actions, and create new, intergenerational pathways for change to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Leadership Dialogue 1 invited two panels, complemented by interventions from participants from the floor, to reflect on the urgent need for actions to achieve a healthy planet and prosperity for all.

Leadership Dialogue 2 addressed specific actions needed to build back from the Covid-19 pandemic and its adverse impacts on people, the planet, and prosperity, and putting the world back on track to deliver the SDGs. In the session the EU reiterated the call for the establishment of an SCP dialogue under the aegis of UNGA/ECOSOC.

Leadership Dialogue 3 discussed ways to improve implementation of the SDGs addressing, inter alia, the increase of developed countries’ financial commitments, technology transfer and capacity building, the importance of inclusiveness, the need to bridge modern science and broader inherited knowledge, the need to transform global food systems and to diversify financial instruments, and the need to increase transparency and accountability policies, interoperability for data and information sharing.

In the closing plenary, co-hosts Sweden and Kenya presented ten Key Recommendations drawn from the meeting sessions and calling for: placing human well-being at the centre of a healthy planet and prosperity for all; recognising and implementing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment; adopting system-wide change in the way our current economic system works to contribute to a healthy planet; strengthening national implementation of existing commitments for a healthy planet; aligning public and private financial flows with environmental, climate and sustainable development commitments; accelerating system-wide transformations of high impact sectors, such as food, energy, water, buildings and construction, manufacturing, and mobility; rebuilding relationships of trust for strengthened cooperation and solidarity, reinforcing and reinvigorating the multilateral system; recognising intergenerational responsibility as a cornerstone of sound policy-making; and taking forward the Stockholm+50 outcomes.

Events associated with Stockholm+50 included:

• UN Science-Policy-Business Forum on the Environment
• One Planet Network Forum
• BRS Triple COP HLS
• High-Level Roundtable on Financing Plastics Circularity
• Sustainable Supply Chains Dinner hosted by the UK (Lord Goldsmith)
• Welfare economies: a new economic model for human and planetary health
• The Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE)
• Green Jobs for Youth Pact
• Stockholm+50 Youth Assembly
• High-Level Side event: Road to Lisbon on the Ocean Climate Nexus
• Chatham House: Towards an inclusive global roadmap on Circular Economy
• Game changers from Global to Local Actions towards Sustainability (SEED)
• IRP side event: Natural Resource Use for a Healthy Planet and Human Prosperity
• Stockholm+50 Action Hub
• Gender equality associated event

More information:

• Website Stockholm+50
• Stockholm+50 Overview
• Stockholm+50 Press Release
• Key Recommendations