It is an honour to have the presence of the President of the General Assembly, Mr. Abdulla Shahid here with us today. My deep thanks to you President Shahid.
My sincere thanks also to the Co-Hosts, Minister Annika Strandhall of Sweden and Minister Kerioko Tobiko of Kenya for your leadership.
I also extend my appreciation to Co-Facilitators from whom we have heard through the day - Canada, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, Germany and Indonesia. And my thanks to everyone here, in-person and participating virtually, for this very useful feedback. It is a real pleasure to hear from both State and non-State actors in this way.
We have a real opportunity here to build on the achievements that we have made in many other multilateral forums - not least, of course at the fifth UN Environment Assembly and the UNEP@50 commemorations that took place in beautiful Nairobi earlier this month.
Today demonstrates inclusive, networked multilateralism at its best. The discussion on the three leadership dialogue conversations has been superbly summarised by the Co-Chairs and so I will not go into more details, but I do wish to extend my thanks to the distinguished participants for the reflections shared.
From the interventions today, it is very clear that what we desire is to translate commitments to actions. What we desire is to see business, community activists, and governments leaning in to deliver. What we desire is to ensure that there is adequate financing and understanding of the persistent inequities in this world.
We, together with the Co-Hosts and Co-Chairs will now reflect on this very helpful feedback. In this context, let me note that the modalities resolution requests the Co-Hosts, together with the Secretary-General of the International Meeting to prepare a summary of the Stockholm+50 meeting discussions. In this context, and reflecting on today’s exchange, it might indeed be helpful if, based on today’s reflections, the Co-Hosts and Co-Chairs were to identify more focused issues that the Leadership Dialogues could cover with one or two associated questions that could help further guide the Dialogues. Taking this approach could help ensure that the summary of the discussion — as called for in the modalities resolution — could already reflect the richness of the dialogue today.
Today, we heard your contributions. Contributions that were both vibrant and vital. It is critical that we continue to hear those diverse voices so that we can ensure that we have adequately embraced that inclusive, networked multilateralism towards which we strive.
It is a time to reflect on the pathway that we are on. On where we have come from and where we are going. Have we done enough? Are we moving fast enough? While much has been achieved in the past 50 years since the Stockholm Conference, today, listening to Carmen Capriles of the Women’s Environmental Network, I think we can all agree that we have much more to do. That we have not done enough and that we are not moving fast enough.
From 1972 to 1992; to Rio +20; to the Paris accord and 2030 Agenda in 2015; we have come a long way but we still striving for a sustainable pathway. It is critical that the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental, be in balance. We have indeed recorded much progress on the economic and social sides, but the environment continues to lag behind. And the more the environment falters, with climate change, with biodiversity loss and with the toxic trail of pollution and waste, the more their impacts on development, both current and in the future. And the more this impacts on the poor and the vulnerable who are most affected by a degraded environment.
So let Stockholm be the chance to push these boundaries. Let Stockholm be the chance to ask the tough questions. Let Stockholm be the moment when we stand in determination to take bold action and make systemic shifts in our economy, in our food systems, in our energy systems, and in our finance systems. So that indeed we can make peace with nature and have the three pillars in balance for a sustainable development for all.
Thank you.
