Governments, stakeholders, and youth representatives gathered in a meeting to prepare for the Stockholm+50 international meeting in which speakers stressed that protecting our environment and nature is one and the same as protecting humankind.

Stockholm+50 will convene in June, basing their entire theme on "a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity."

The preparatory meeting took place in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) hall on 28 March 2022, convened by the UNGA President. 

Annika Strandhäll, Sweden’s Minister for Climate and the Environment, started the meeting by stating that Stockholm+50 will be an opportunity to reflect on how to close the “implementation gap” of sustainability commitments that have already been made, including through financing.

"Investing in the planet means investing in people," said Strandhäll,  stressing the need to include youth, and citing the commitment to future generations in the 1972 Stockholm Declaration.

In another statement, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said that in 1972, the world recognized and acknowledged connections amongst poverty, the environment, and sustainable development and united under the concept of “only one earth” and environmental multilateralism, saying those recognitions are even more apparent today. 

When the meeting adjourned, it was said that the Stockholm+50 will enable the world to strengthen environmental multilateralism and build towards a future that is both sustainable and inclusive.