Decoupled approaches to environment, economic, and equity progress have not worked. Have created a fractured response to global challenges that are inherently interdependent.
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Leaders of the world,
We are young delegates from the conference Planet Under Pressure and citizens of the world who desire to translate our scientific knowledge of global challenges into concrete action (through the course of our careers). We can no longer ignore that environment, economics, and equity are intrinsically (coupled, interconnected, linked, different facets of the same problem, interdependent, integrated, holistic), and any action that addresses one addresses them all. Where solutions exist that improve all three, we want them implemented now, and we want to be part of the solution – we commit to being part of the solution. Where there are currently conflicts between the three, we commit to working on better solutions.
Despite the (vested interests?) politics that surround such decisions, the decision makers can be confident that we, as their constituents, want them to take strong action. 'BE BRAVE We need governance systems that will shepherd graceful decline of vested interests that stand in the way and nurture new models and entrepreneurial solutions that especially youth are bringing forward.
(orphaned from previous paragraph) (integrity an important word) and do not use the same thinking that produced the problems of today'! You have our support and we need your action. Only through focusing on sustainability, equity and opportunity can we move forward. This is our vision. We must be hopeful and not just surrounded by fear. We challenge you to make it a reality.
(orphaned – maybe delete) It is time to admit that global governance has been failing on issues of sustainability. Such failure puts society at risk, at all scales. We are already experiencing planetary destabilization in environmental, economic, and social terms. What are we going to do about it? We’ve waited 20 years. It’s time to act.
In the 20 years since the first Earth Summit, the scientific evidence has accumulated. We propose the following (governance systems):
· Make funds available on all scales
· Fiscal incentives for young eco-social entrepreneurs, especially directed to developing countries
· Direct investment to/through businesses to young scientists
· Open access to knowledge
· Integrating business, civilsociety, and government approaches to development reaps rewards for entire systems, we support expanded
· Make science more accessible and translatable across sectors and interests so that it can be used for policy making and long term business decisions that will ultimately drive a sustainable society
· GPD+ or other expanded measures of progress
· Remove barriers for developing countries to participate more fully in international dialogs
· Consideration of the dependence of environmental progress on other social conflicts, that environmental progress will depend on solving other governance issues
· Support from governments for long-term implementation of solution-oriented educational and decision-making programs based on sound social and learning science - Integrating trans-discliplinary (problematic term) research into these programs
· Encouragement of market mechanisms to create conditions for individual decisions to make a difference
· Enforce existing laws and regulations and create new enforceable and enforced structures
· Create incentives for industries and other vested interests to transparently present the tradeoffs inherent in their current decision-making based on scientific scenarios of global change, providing true accountability
· Greater transparency into the contradictions inherent in the consumer society, capitalism, and other economic facets of our world so that the citizenry of the world can engage in an informed manner
Sustainability, equity, and opportunity. Courageous and not giving into fear, power sharing between generations, international cooperation on global issues, local contexts matter and creating conditions for local responses is essential, subsidiarity of decision-making, a balance of concentration and decentraliziation of decision making, those with authority must have the integrity to use that authority fully in the service of these social needs without infringing on legitimate local governance systems
We support the concerns raised in State of the Planet Declaration, but we here make a stronger call to action now. We need innovative ways of engaging with the complexities of politics, inequalities, and the power dynamics that constrain our ability to act. This is what it will take to transform our ways of life towards more sustainable pathways.
(orphaned, represented already) In order to make the knowledge produced through science useful, we call for stakeholder participation in all systems at all levels; concrete solutions using the existing roadmaps and action plans coming from sources as diverse as NGOs and consulting firms; a more inclusive indicator of well-being as an alternative to GDP, and a new spirit global environmental patriotism to motivate our decisions.
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