Safeguarding Our Common Home - A Pathway of Hope in the Stockholm+50 Declaration

SIDE EVENT
Thursday 2 June
11:30-12:45 CEST
Stockholmsmässan, Room 4

Organizers: Common Home of Humanity, Global Pact Coalition, Global Governance Forum, International Institute for Law and the Environment, 2022 Initiative Foundation, One Earth Philanthropy, Baha'i International Community, ZERO – Association for the Sustainability of the Earth System

Archived video: Watch

About: The world’s dire ecological situation and the challenges faced by present and future generations are increasingly clear. One year before the 50th anniversary of the 1971 Stockholm Conference, the “Stockholm+49 Summit” started a global “game-changer” process to build consensus around one single page document, developing a four-step civil society Declaration to catalyze a critical paradigm shift in planetary environmental governance. This Declaration will be presented and discussed at Stockholm+50, as a fundamental step to connect the “Pathway of Hope” initiated in 1972 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAZAmN8dauU) with the “Summit of the Future” foreseen in the UNSG report Our Common Agenda (OCA).

This side event will be the culmination of a year-long consultation process around the “Safeguarding our Common Home” civil society Declaration, opening a new phase of discussion for an action plan related to the OCA. The Declaration’s four steps are: Implement the Right to a Healthy Environment, Safeguard the Global Commons, Establish a Regenerative Economy, and Prioritize Governance and Institutional Solutions.

To promote a meaningful discussion around the Stockholm+50 Declaration, we propose a three-part side event:

1. Presentations from experts.

2. A Roundtable with a moderator and the experts; and,

3. An Open Session with public Q&A (in person and online).

Moderator(s): Susana Viseu (Business as Nature)

Panelists:

  • Paulo Magalhães (Common Home of Humanity)
  • Maria Fernanda Espinosa (Former President of the UN General Assembly)
  • Karl Burkart (One Earth), Ligia Noronha (UNEP)
  • Izabella Teixeira (International Resource Panel)
  • Johan Rockström (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research)
  • Duarte Cordeiro (Minister of the Environment and Climate Action Portugal)

Contact person: Ana Luísa Guimarães (ana.guimaraes_at_commonhomeofhumanity.org)

Event outcomes (Key transformative actions):

  • The one-page Civil Society Declaration “Restoring Our Common Home” discussed the redefinition of Global Commons, as a structural question to restore nature and clean the atmosphere (https://www.stockholmdeclaration.org/full-declaration/). To enable the successful management of a common good, the first step is to define it. Today we have scientific instruments to do so – the Planetary Boundaries’ framework enables us to define the Safe Operating Space for Humankind as a well-functioning Earth System, that corresponds to a Stable Climate. If we are able to legally recognize this non-territorial space as a new common heritage of humankind, it will be possible to internalize not only the costs, but also the benefits performed on this intangible common good. The Portuguese Minister of Environment and Climate Action announced that Portugal has already considered on its Climate Law the recognition of a Stable Climate as a Common Heritage of Humankind as a goal of its climate diplomacy.

 


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