Ribera: 'We need action, action, action' to ensure global well-being and progress compatible with the sustainability of the planet

Ribera took part in the Swedish capital in 'Stockholm+50', the United Nations event commemorating half a century since the first declaration on Environment and Human Development. The meeting made a general call to governments, multilateral institutions, and the economic powers to undertake the necessary transformations in decarbonisation and change of production model over the course of the current decade.

Convened under the theme 'A healthy planet for prosperity for all: our responsibility, our opportunity', the vice-president sees the international meeting as an opportunity to galvanise action. The goals set in 1972 at the first Stockholm Conference on Human Development are still a long way off and "today's responses are still inadequate to the challenges we identified then, and insufficient for the profound and radical transformation we need," she said.

In her speech to the plenary, Ribera recalled that the deterioration of the planet and its capacity for regeneration has worsened alarmingly, affecting the physical bases of human development. The crisis is already threefold: global warming, loss of biodiversity and the pollution of all ecosystems. To redirect action and update the commitment of the international community, the minister said, it is essential to accelerate the transformation, the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energies, to establish circular economy models and guarantee social justice in this transition process. And above all, she stressed, "we need action, action, action. Building concrete solutions, with science and institutions, technologists, industrialists, citizens and organised society".

The vice-president also took part in one of the Leadership Dialogues organised at the event, in which she stressed the responsibility of today's generations to respond quickly to the challenges identified half a century ago. "We cannot project ourselves into the next 50 years. This is the decisive decade, so let us build the bridge together that will allow us to link the present with the future", she added.

Stockholm+50 was opened on Thursday by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations. Guterres has urged financial actors to completely abandon fossil energy financing and invest in renewables, and world leaders as a whole to stop considering gross domestic product as the measure of human progress and well-being. "When we destroy forests we create GDP; when we overfish we create GDP. GDP is not the yardstick for measuring wealth in today's world. Instead we must move towards a circular and regenerative economy," she said.

Non official translation