Stockholm+50 is an international meeting to be held in Stockholm, Sweden on 2 and 3 June 2022 to commemorate the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and celebrate 50 years of global environmental action. The 1972 Conference was a landmark meeting that put humanity’s relationship with the earth and global concern about the environment on the international agenda. The Stockholm Conference has been a cornerstone of every international conference and treaty on the environment over the last 50 years by linking environmental protection with sustainable development and producing concrete ideas on how governments could work together to preserve the environment. It underpins our most important multilateral environmental agreements such as the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Bhutan was among one of the first signatories to the UNFCCC and CBD in Rio and ratified the UNFCCC and CBD in 1995 and all the protocols under the conventions in subsequent years.

In 2021, the UN General Assembly through two Resolutions agreed to convene an international meeting entitled “Stockholm+50: a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity,” to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals during the Decade of Action including through a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Royal Government of Bhutan in collaboration with the UNDP country office in Bhutan is currently carrying out the national stakeholder consultations to prepare for the Stockholm+50 Conference.

To complement this process, the Global Shapers Thimphu Hub in collaboration with Radio Valley 99.9 FM and with support from the UNDP is organizing a four-part series on the Stockholm+50 to highlight youth perspectives for a shared vision for a healthy and prosperous planet while accelerating progress on the SDGs and multilateral environmental agreements. To ensure that our future solutions are inclusive and sustainable, it is vital that the young people (aged less than 28 years) in the country, who comprise more than half the population, are heard and brought into the difficult but important conversations of the future of the country as well as the planet.

The episodes invite relevant youth representatives working in diverse sectors such as agriculture, government, social enterprises, technology, media, education, etc., to connect their experiences, lived as well as professionally, to the conversation on Stockholm+50. Episodes will glean youth perspectives on our national aspirations, capacities and resources in the context of the guests’ backgrounds. More importantly, the episodes aim to be driven by empathy and connection by engaging with guests on opportunities for smart and green development and on building bridges and ally ships that bring policies to action.