First IEF contribution to Stockholm+50
The secretariat of the Stockholm+50 International Meeting next June is leading three Leadership Dialogues to prepare broadly-based inputs to the intergovernmental meeting. The first Leadership dialogue is Reflecting on the urgent need for actions to achieve a healthy planet and prosperity of all, and a first online informal working group on this theme was held on 10 March 2022. IEF President Arthur Dahl was invited to participate. He submitted several comments in writing, and was invited to be the last participant to make an oral contribution. The following are the main IEF contributions.
On the first topic, Transforming our relationship with nature and restoring ecosystems, with reference to the goal to conserve 30 per cent of lands and oceans by 2030, IEF noted that it is important to ensure that the 30 percent goal includes areas already under Indigenous ownership and management and provides for their continued protection by reinforcing their indigenous status and responsibility.
The discussion turned to education. IEF commented that education should include systems approaches to teach the oneness of all humanity and with nature as in Indigenous worldviews, rather than the separation of economy, society and environment as at present.
The organizers asked what types of measures should be considered to track progress on sustainable development and accurately account for changes in nature? IEF responded that we need comprehensive biodiversity accounting, with biodiversity and its ecosystems serving as capital, signalling positive and negative trends, to be integrated into beyond GDP accounts. Similarly, carbon accounts should tax releases of carbon from terrestrial storage, consider atmospheric carbon as carbon debt and charge interest to historical emitters, and reward carbon sequestration including by natural systems, to create positive as well as negative incentives. See https://iefworld.org/ddahl_accounting
The second topic was Producing and consuming sustainably and fighting pollution, including the question: What actions on pollution issues, including plastics, chemicals and waste, are needed to raise global ambition commensurate with climate change and biodiversity? IEF proposed that, beyond the planned plastics convention, we need global legislation on chemical and waste pollution of the global commons, beyond voluntary state action, also binding on non-state actors like multinational corporations, and enforceable on both producers and consumers. This could include toxic chemicals, fixed nitrogen and phosphorus for which planetary boundaries are exceeded, and wastes including space junk. See https://globalgovernanceforum.org/filling-a-critical-gap-in-global-envi… or https://iefworld.org/ddahl_pollution.
Finally, on the third topic, Social justice and intergenerational equity, the organizers asked about institutional and capacity gaps to enforcing environmental law and human rights. This is where Arthur was requested to make an oral contribution. He noted that there is no global governance for big business, which drives much environmental and social damage. The present corporate paradigm has no moral framework and is just institutionalized greed with financial profit as the legal responsibility that justifies any means. There should be a requirement that every corporation builds into its legal charter obligations for social and environmental responsibility to do good and prevent harm. He referred to his recent paper on this for ebbf at https://ebbf.medium.com/challenging-assumptions-of-old-business-models-….
This represents a good start to IEF contributions to Stockholm+50 on 2-3 June, including the IEF annual conference.
Everyone can contribute to the Stockholm+50 Global Public Survey by completing the questionnaire at https://www.stockholm50.global/state-planet-global-public-survey.
Last updated 22 March 2022