Stockholm+50: United Nations General Assembly Decides to Hold International Meeting in Stockholm June 2-3 2022 Marking Fiftieth Anniversary of United Nations Conference on Human Environment

Draft UN document A/75/L.88, International meeting entitled "Stockholm+50: a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity", to be formalized as document A/RES/75/280, will be available at Resolutions of the 75th Session - UN General Assembly. Notably, the UN General Assembly agreed that the meeting should mutually reinforce the commemoration of UNEP’s fiftieth anniversary, known as “UNEP@50”, to take place in Nairobi 2-3 March 2022, seeking to avoid “overlap and duplication” a key concern of many countries.

Stockholm+50 will take place during the week of World Environment Day 2022 as an “international meeting” – in contrast to previous UN Summits and Conferences, such as Rio 1992, Johannesburg 2002, and Rio+20 in 2012. The purpose of Stockholm+50 is to contribute to the environmental dimension of sustainable development to accelerate the implementation of commitments in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development, including a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the nature of the meeting, the UN General Assembly determined “that the international meeting will result in a summary of discussions as its outcome document." A further concise modalities resolution on the Stockholm+50 conference, fleshing out details on the conference agenda and programme, is expected before the end of the seventy-fifth session of the General Assembly, perhaps in August 2021.

UNEP is to serve as the focal point for providing support to the organization of the international meeting, with appropriate support from the Secretariat and other relevant United Nations entities. The United Nations Environment Assembly at its resumed fifth session, in 2022 (UNEA 5.2) including through its intersessional subsidiary body, the Committee of Permanent Representatives to UNEP, and other United Nations bodies that are conducting relevant intergovernmental processes, to provide input leading up to Stockholm+50, as appropriate.

Together Stockholm+50 and “UNEP@50”, on the heals of the UN Climate Change and Biodiversity meetings in late 2021, need to revamp international cooperation for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and to strengthen the commitment on the environmental rule of law and the means for implementation of policies and laws. A key unresolved question is how to fully enable, and take into account, the voice of civil society organizations and how to meaningfully engage the private sector in these processes and fora.

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      Photo: Victor Tafur