Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s Stockholm+50 conference alongside Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres said the conference was a “crucial opportunity to bolster our response to the triple planetary emergency of climate disruption, pollution and biodiversity.” The Stockholm+50 will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm which established the link between environment and poverty and brought risks to the attention of the international community. Host country Sweden has been criticised by some for cutting its climate aid by a third, reallocating resources to Ukrainian refugees, while other developed nations have failed in their commitment to support developing nations with US$100 billion per year of climate finance. “That did not happen in 2020 [or] 2021. It is not clarified if it will happen in 2022. This is one of the major facts which is creating mistrust that is a very serious impediment for us to collectively, in unity, North and South, to address climate change and to be able to keep the 1.5[°C] alive” said Guterres.
