Nobel laureates hand in recommendations to UN panel on global sustainability in Stockholm

English.news.cn 2011-05-19

STOCKHOLM, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Eighteen Nobel laureates Wednesday signed their name on the Stockholm Memorandum and formally handed it over to the United Nations High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability during the Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability in Stockholm.

Finland's President Tarja Halonen received the memorandum on behalf of the high-level panel which also includes former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd who were present among others at the handover ceremony at the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.

According to the memorandum, unsustainable patterns of production, consumption and population growth are challenging the resilience of the planet to support human activity while inequalities between and within societies remain high, leaving behind billions with unmet basic human needs and disproportionate vulnerability to global environmental change, thus there is a need for mind-shift for a great transformation in the world.

"We call upon all leaders of the 21st century to exercise a collective responsibility of planetary stewardship. This means laying the foundation for a sustainable and equitable global civilization in which the entire Earth community is secure and prosperous,"the memorandum said.

The memorandum also called for recognizing that global sustainability is a precondition of success and adopting a global contract between industrialized and developing countries to scale up investment in approaches that integrate poverty reduction, climate stabilization and ecosystem stewardship.

It urges governments to agree on global emission reductions guided by science and embedded in ethics and justice.

It also called for energy and resource efficiency revolution and ensure affordable food for all. The calls also include reducing human pressures by educating women, strengthening Earth System Governance and enacting a new contract between science and society.

"We are the first generation facing the evidence of global change, it therefore falls upon us to change our relationship with the planet in order to tip the scales towards a sustainable world for future generation," the memorandum said.

Halonen said the memorandum is a great encouragement to the world.

"We know that the world needs sustainability, and the world needs that three dimensions-economic, social and ecological aspects, the world might not achieve the millennium goals by 2015, thus we welcome these tips and hope we will be well-prepared for the 2012 Rio +20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development," Halonen said.

This was the third Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability.

Editor: yan