50 Years of International Environmental Policy

How can we do better?

The conference “Stockholm+50: A healthy planet for the prosperity of all - our responsibility, our opportunity” takes place five decades after the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. In this dossier we do not only look back at 50 years of global environmental policy, but also forward: What can we do better now to ensure the necessary transformation still succeeds?

1992: The Earth Summit, also known as the Rio Conference, brings together 10,000 delegates from 178 countries and more non-state actors than ever before in UN history.
2018 Greta Thunberg starts her "School Strike for the Climate", resulting in Fridays for Future.

For a good life for all, for one Earth for all

Appeal
International trade rules – be they those of the World Trade Organization (WTO) or bilateral agreements – favor exploitative relationships. And the latest IPCC report warns that many of these trade and investment agreements severely limit the political scope for climate and environmental protection. The EU, with its attractive single market, has a great deal of power and influence here. We must take advantage of both now.
By Anna Cavazzini
You can only protect the environment by empowering people, by informing them, by helping them to understand that these resources are theirs and that they must protect them.
Wangari Maathai, politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1940-2011)

The contents of this dossier are translations of texts first published in the magazine Böll.Thema "50 years of International Environmental Policy"

Read the complete Böll.Thema (German)

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