Satatement at the UN ECOSOC Coordination Segment
Statement delivered by Ambassador Magnus Lennartsson, at the UN ECOSOC Coordination Segment: Leveraging ECOSOC for an inclusive and resilient recovery guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, New York, 3 February 2022
Thank you, Chair,
- Sweden welcomes this opportunity for the Ecosoc Coordination Segment to address this most urgent of topics: Protecting the Planet, and the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation to the COVID-19 recovery.
- We all know that progress, despite efforts, progress continues to be uneven and generally insufficient.
- Urgent and more action is needed to reverse existing trends, including integrated ecosystem-based approaches, nature-based solutions and sustainable consumption and production.
- The search for solutions requires us to closely examine the interlinkages, or “nexus” if you like, between the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.
- Recovery from the pandemic provides an opportunity to build back better towards a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive recovery. By investing in innovation and green jobs, societies can benefit from a just and equitable transition to a new green economic model.
- This year we commemorate 50 years since the 1972 first United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm and the founding of UNEP. It is an opportune moment to re-examine global environmental action and to chart the course for the future environment agenda.
- The UN International Meeting Stockhom+50: A healthy Planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity, co-hosted by Sweden and Kenya in Stockholm on June 2 and 3, will seek to do just that:
- by reflecting on the urgent need for actions to achieve a healthy planet and prosperity for all
- by focussing on how to achieve a sustainable and inclusive recovery form the COVID 19 pandemic
- and how to accelerate the implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development.
- It is clear that the themes of Stockholm+50 align very closely with those of the ECOSOC and the HLPF. We expect UNEP@50 and Stockholm+50 to generate concrete recommendations that will be of high relevance to these organs as well.
- Andersen, you have been appointed Secretary-General of Stockholm+50, and with UNEP as the focal point for preparatory work we are in excellent hands. A Preparatory Meeting for Stockhom+50 will be held here in New York on March 28.
- We invite interested stakeholders to register and seek accreditation and to participate in an inclusive, networked co-creative process leading up to Stockholm.
- President, Kenya and Sweden would like to welcome you all to actively engage in the UNEP@50 and Stockholm+50 processes in rhe coming weeks and months.
Thank you
Last updated 04 Feb 2022, 8.02 AM