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SoSe 22: Stockholm + 50: Five decades of global environmental politics

Lena Partzsch

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Fifty years ago, the first United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm. Since then, the world has witnessed many environmental summits and appeals for sustainable development, most recently, the Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. This public lecture series takes stock of five decades of global environmental governance. In addition to climate change, environmental issues include deforestation, pollution of the oceans and freshwater. In 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda with a set of wide-ranging goals that articulate the desired outcome of sustainable development in diverse areas: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The guest lecturers present the state of the environment in global sustainability governance: How have perceptions of sustainable development changed in politics and research over the last decades? Which actors and institutions have most mattered for governance efforts, and who should be held accountable for success and failure? Which alternative and innovative forms of governance exist and deserve more research attention for a transition to environmentally salient sustainability? The lecture series starts with “the green targets” of Agenda 2030, i.e. SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 15 (Life on Land), SDG 14 (Life below Water) and SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation). The following lectures cover the SDGs with environmental trade-offs and synergies, in particular, SDG 2 (Food Security), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). In addition, we look at the role that cities (SDG 11) and partnerships (SDG 17) might play for an environmentally sound implementation of Agenda 2030 and conclude with a synthesis lecture. This lecture series conveys the full spectrum of sustainability perceptions, identifies governance failure and responsibilities, and contributes to developing alternative and innovative approaches to accelerate a transition to sustainability. Schließen