By Prof. Bharat H. Desai
The Stockholm 2022 at best remained a timid acknowledgement of things going terribly wrong and lacked the courage for a decisive course correction. The time seemed to stand still with the “world problematique” prophesized in the Limits to Growth (1972).
In his opening remarks on 2 June in Stockholm, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lamented about the grim environmental scenario that the global “wellbeing is at risk” and “Earth’s natural systems cannot keep up with our demands”. “We haven’t kept our promises on the environment”, Guterres candidly admitted. As the UNSG pleaded to “lead us out of this mess”, his clarion call to address the “triple planetary crisis” caused by the climate emergency seemed alike a cry in the wilderness before the Stockholm audience.
Similarly, the executive director of UN Environment Program, Inger Andersen asked as to what went wrong in the five decades (1972-2022). “If Indira Gandhi or Olof Palme were here today, what excuses would we offer up for our inadequate action? None that they would accept. They would tell us that further inaction is inexcusable”, Andersen unashamedly said.
World Problematique
The Stockholm+50 Conference remained a low-key affair. Ironically, the moral halo that ushered the world into global environmental consciousness at the Stockholm 1972 seemed to be missing at the Stockholm 2022 Conference. It ended with a listless statement jointly issued by Sweden and Kenya, the two host countries. Instead of the much-expected uplifting Stockholm+50 declaration, it took the shape of a strange ten point “Presidents’ Final Remarks to Plenary”. It didn’t cause any ripple as didn’t issue a clarion call to shake the conscience of peoples and nations for everting the existential planetary crisis.
The Stockholm 2022 at best remained a timid acknowledgement of things going terribly wrong and lacked the courage for a decisive course correction. The time seemed to stand still with the “world problematique” prophesized in the Limits to Growth (1972).
The Predicament
The UN has put into practice the global conferencing technique. The Stockholm 1972 was followed by confabulations in Rio de Janeiro (1992), Johannesburg (2002), Rio de Janeiro (2012) and now Stockholm (2022). Notwithstanding all the global conferences, mega regulatory processes, creation of institutional maze and spending of a staggering amount of funds, the global environmental conditions have only worsened. Was it really worth it?
The world seems to be in dire straits with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 set to go haywire, alarming situation of chronic hunger (2021 Global Hunger Index), 2.37 billion people without access to adequate food (2021 FAO), uncertainty of meeting the 1.5 C GHG targets (2022 IPCC) and climate change exacerbating SGBV against women. The graphic description of “two worlds, two planets, two humanities” for the North-South divide by the economist Mahbub ul Haq before the Stockholm 1972 still haunts the world. Gandhian (1908) warnings about choice between our needs and greed as well as lament of Tagore (1908) on “progress towards what and progress for whom” seems to have been left far behind. What went wrong?
The Earth in the Balance
The quagmire of global environmental crisis stares us in the face. This author’s 1992 audacious prediction [Social Science & Medicine (Oxford: Pergamon) 35. 4. 1992 at 593] came true when Covid-19 pandemic came: “if the current pace persists, people will be forced to move with gas masks in some of the mega-cities in the not-too-distant future”. With 7.9 billion (2022) world population expected to reach frightening levels of 10 billion (2050), one can only imagine the kind of life the future generations will inherit. Ironically, “human being has reached the moon but does not know how to live on the earth” (former Indian PM Vajpayee).
As the world assembled again in the Swedish capital in 2022, the echo of prediction (6 June 1972) of the Swedish Prime Minister (PM) Olof Palme was recalled: “The decisive question is in which direction we will develop, by what means we will grow, which qualities we want to achieve,and what values we wish to guide our future…there is no individual future, neither for people nor for nations”. India was present at the ‘origin’ (Stockholm 1972) with the Indian Delegation led by the PM Indira Gandhi. She drew attention to the wisdom from the Atharva Veda, thus: “What of thee I dig out; Let that quickly grow over; Let me not hit thy vitals or thy heart.” “Indira Gandhi looked at the environment not from an elitist view point. She did it due to her genuine conviction”, Dr. Karan Singh, former JNU Chancellor, shared his recollections with this author on 27 April 2022.
Envisioning Our Future
After 50 years, it is pertinent to assess the trajectory hitherto followed, assess what went wrong and how we need to move forward. An ideational book curated by this author, Envisioning Our Environmental Future (IOS Press: Amsterdam, 2022) (Road to Stockholm+50 and Beyond | Environmental Policy and Law), has painstakingly brought together futuristic ideas of 22 outstanding scholars from the five continents to look beyond the Stockholm+50 (2022). It presents prognosis and prospects for extricating the world out of the global environmental morass for a better future in the 21st century and beyond. It is a sequel to another ideational work curated by the author with cutting-edge ideas of 21 outstanding scholars from around the world: Our Earth Matters (IOS Press: Amsterdam, 2021) (Our Earth Matters | IOS Press).
The address of the Indian PM Narendra Modi, at the 75th anniversary of the UNGA (2020) that “we cannot fight today’s challenges with outdated structures” holds relevance for comprehensive UN reforms. An explicit reference to “trusteeship of the planet” in the Indian PM’s address at G-20 Riyadh virtual summit (2020) provides one such indication for a possible change (The Tribune, 02 December 2020). The 2021 report of the UNSG has alluded to such ‘repurposed’ Trusteeship Council, mooted in this author’s lecture (15 January 1999) at Legal Department of the World Bank DC. Will the UN member states embrace this idea to make the Trusteeship Council the principal instrumentality for the trusteeship of the planet? India can seize this opportunity to galvanize the world as a global solution provider.
Prof. Bharat H. Desai is Jawaharlal Nehru Chair and Professor of International Law at the Centre for International Legal Studies of SIS, JNU. He coordinated the initiatives on Making SIS Visible during 2008-2013 (Making SIS Visible | Welcome to Jawaharlal Nehru University (jnu.ac.in) as well as Inter-University Consortium (Partner Universities: JNU, Jammu, Kashmir and Sikkim) during 2012-2020 (www.iucccc.in/Contact us.htm).