Stockholm+50: Only One Earth

Stockholm+50: Only One Earth

Next year will mark 50 years since the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment – the 1972 Stockholm Conference – that led to the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme and that designated 5 June as World Environment Day. Sweden will host the Stockholm+50 international high-level meeting to commemorate this 50th anniversary and to accelerate implementation to deliver on the 2030 Agenda and achieve sustainable recovery from COVID-19.

Sweden will also be the host country of World Environment Day 2022, as announced last week. The day will be held under the theme Only One Earth, highlighting the need to live sustainably in harmony with nature by bringing transformative changes – through policies and our choices – towards cleaner, greener lifestyles. Only One Earth was the motto for the 1972 Stockholm Conference; 50 years on, the motto holds true. This theme “reminds us of the roots of the critical work of protecting our environment and injects vital impetus to global efforts to build back better and greener”, said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen.

In the run-up to this major event for environmental governance, the UN Environment Management Group organized a 2-Part Nexus Dialogue Series to encourage consideration and reflection within the UN system on the progress made since the 1972 conference, the challenges encountered and lesson learnt, and the perspectives for integrating the environmental agenda within UN initiatives and frameworks. The first roundtable – “Taking Stock of Our Responsibility & Opportunity”, took place online on 23 November, and the second - "Foreseeing the Future of Our Responsibility and Opportunity", with IEF President Arthur Dahl as a panelist, was on 30 November. A report on these events is here.

Source: based on https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/newsletter/environment-whats-up-in-geneva-22-28-november-2021/