Save the Planet: Protect the Future / No Excuses for Inaction

Message from Right Livelihood Laureates to the Stockholm+50 conference “A healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity” and COP 27 (the UN Climate Change Conference 2022)

Planet Earth is facing existential threats from human impact on the land, sea and air – on its ecological systems and its many forms of life. Stockholm+50 and COP 27 provide opportunities for us to make the collective changes necessary to prevent a catastrophic collapse of one or more ecological systems which could end civilisation as we know it – and to instead adopt policies to protect the future for all life.

It’s time to end the excuses for inaction and minimal stop-gap measures, and to instead make the real changes required.

We, the undersigned Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, call for urgent action to shift from dead-end, unsustainable, exploitative relationships with the environment and with each other, to relationships based on earth trusteeship/stewardship, rights of nature, human rights including rights of future generations, and common security.

We call in particular on governments to:

• Leave fossil fuels in the ground: It’s time to move from regulating carbon emissions to ending the fossil fuel economy. We encourage countries to join the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance and to negotiate a Fossil Fuel Treaty in order to end all fossil fuel extraction and to support transition to fossil free economies;

• End financial support for fossil fuels: This includes ending subsidies and investments in the fossil fuel industry, and shifting these to financial incentives for renewable energies and transition to green economies;

• Shift military budgets and investments to human security. Much of the $2 trillion spent annually on militaries – including all of the $100 billion spent on the nuclear arms race – could be better invested in environmental protection, public health, renewable energies and the transition to green economies;

• Elevate the legal responsibility to protect planet earth and future generations: This includes adhering to the outcome of precedent cases such as Urgenda v Netherlands and giving support to the initiative to take the issue of climate change to the International Court of Justice, in line with the recent recognition of the Right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a fundamental human right.

• Enhance the concepts of Rights of Nature and Earth Trusteeship in our relationship with the earth and in our political and legal systems: This includes acknowledging earth systems as living systems, “ecocide” as a crime against humanity, and the Rights of Nature as relevant and binding on governments;

• Ensure that corporate and economic interests adhere to human rights and environmental protection principles: Support the draft of a binding treaty on the obligations of transnational corporations to ensure their accountability for the violation of human rights also related to environmental law;

• Ensure sustainable agriculture that provides sustenance for all: Support local food production and agroecological farming through subsidies, reforms and tax reliefs;

• Ensure fair representation of indigenous peoples, women, and vulnerable groups in the draft and implementation of climate, peace and security policies. This is in line with the Human Rights Council’s guidelines for equal participation in political and public affairs on different levels.

The above measures, though by no means a complete list of what needs to be done, are not only essential to avoid a planetary breakdown, but they also constitute important tools to address the issues faced by many Right Livelihood Laureates. We call on States to take firm and concrete actions for real, radical, and transformative change.

Signed by:

Alice Tepper Marlin, USA

Alyn Ware, New Zealand

Aminatou Haidar, Western Sahara

Amory Lovins, USA

András Biró, Hungary

Angie Zelter for Trident Ploughshares, UK

Anwar Fazal, Malaysia

Basil Fernando, Hong Kong

Birsel Lemke, Turkey

Chico Whitaker, Brazil

Colin Gonsalves, India