Back to the future: A sustainability plan for our kids

A “GT” Partner message by Geoffrey Lipman

In 2022 it is 50 years since the 1st Earth Summit in Stockholm, and 30 years since the 2nd Earth Summit in Rio. Both of these landmark events were led by Maurice Strong.

On the 50th Anniversary of the Stockholm Earth Summit, and the 30th Anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit — both of which were led by my friend Maurice Strong, the inspiration for SUNx Malta (Strong Universal Network) — I gave a keynote at a Stockholm event reflecting on the dominant role Maurice played in creating today’s United Nations-led climate and environment agenda. It is a positive (but alarmed) message that our only hope is in our kids.

I’m delighted to give this keynote, virtually, in Stockholm during the commemoration of the 1st Earth Summit 50 years ago. I thank iGEM and CBCGDF for the honour.

You may wonder why a man who has spent a lifetime in Travelism (travel & tourism) and not in your bio-engineering world is giving this address.

It’s perhaps because we are all part of the Travelism ecosystem — either as visitors or visited. And SUNx Malta, where I am President, is a global centre for Climate Friendly Travel — sustainable development goal (SDG) and Paris 1.5‑linked.

But most importantly it’s because SUNx — the Strong Universal Network — is a legacy to Maurice Strong my friend and mentor, who was the architect of the UN-led system driving today’s existential green and clean transformation.

It’s sometimes good to go back into the lessons of history to shape a better path forward, hence my subject today: Back to the Future: a Sustainability Plan for our Kids.

A future that above all must beat the existential climate crisis that UN Secretary General Guterres has called a Code Red for Humanity.

And to realise that future by building powerful resilience and decarbonisation structures on the firm foundations that visionaries put in place half a century ago.

The late Maurice Strong was such a visionary.

Despite not finishing high school in his native Canada, Maurice earned some 60 honorary degrees from around the world before his death a few days before the 2015 Paris Climate COP, which started with a eulogy to him.

Maurice Strong was:

• Seven times Under Secretary General of the UN.
• Secretary General of Stockholm 1972 the first Earth Summit that launched the global green movement.
• Founding Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and leader of the UN Environment System during its formative years of the 1970s.
• Member of the Club of Rome that defined Planetary Boundaries.
• On the Founding Board of the World Economic Forum that brought business to the environment table.
• On the Brundtland Commission that defined sustainable development as leaving the world a better place for our Kids.
• Advisor to the World Bank President, linking global finance and environment programs.
• Secretary General of the landmark 2nd Rio Earth Summit in 1992 with its visionary Agenda 21 codifying sustainable development; spawning conventions on climate, desertification, biodiversity, and forest management; and empowering the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
• Designer of the Earth Charter — with former USSR President Mikhael Gorbachev — which introduced in the Hague in 2000 a far-sighted compact between people and planet that picked up where Rio stopped.

These are the firm foundations that today support the SDGs, Paris 1.5, and the 2030/2050 Agenda.

Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called it “the Future We Want”.

Pessimists looking back will tell you that it’s already too late for that future; that we should have acted years ago; and, at the current fossil fuel burn rate, we will hit closer to 3 degrees by the turn of the century, making for a dead planet for humanity and the species we are murdering with our current lifestyle.

But we must not be pessimists.

Also see “Hello 2022: Hello Code Red, Climate Friendly Travel” &
“SUNx’ 7‑point climate action plan more ambitious than Glasgow”

While the code red clock is ticking relentlessly, we do still have time.

That is my message to you today

We still have time.

And we have pathways to a better future. They can be found not just by looking back, but in looking forward and listening to our kids.

• It is our kids who have green, nature-based thinking in their DNA.
• It is our kids who live and breathe new technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
• It is our kids who have deep passion in their hearts for a cleaner, greener future.
• It is our kids who have an inherent sense of decency unpolluted by cynicism, greed, inequity, and the beggar-my-neighbour politics of our world.
• It is our kids who are leading the global calls for more action now so that we can realistically plan for a secure future.
• It is our kids who will be tomorrow’s leaders and will have to pick up our mess.
• It is our kids who carry the (Maurice) ‘Strong Vision’ first launched in Stockholm half a century ago to leave the world a better place.
• It is our kids who love to see the world and who therefore demand Climate Friendly Travel — Paris 1.5 and SDG-linked.

We are training them in our Graduate Diploma with ITS Malta to be Strong Climate Champions to lead Climate Friendly Travel community transformation around the world.

And we are hiring them as interns in our SUNx Malta CFT Registry to help turn declarations into actions that truly bend emission trends.

We must listen. And we must act now.

As the amazing Greta Thunberg would say, “no more blah, blah, blah”.

Thank you and Happy World Environment Day.

About SUNx Malta — Strong Universal Network

SUNx Malta is a legacy for the late Maurice Strong, father of sustainable development. Its goal is to advance Climate Friendly Travel (CFT) ~ low carbon : SDG linked : Paris 1.5.

SUNx has a core partnership with Malta’s Ministry of Tourism & Consumer Protection and Malta Tourism Authority to advance CFT, to create a UNFCCC-linked CFT Registry and to promote CFT Education. It plans to put in place 100,000 Strong Climate Champions by 2030 across all UN States.

About the author

SUNx President Geoffrey Lipman was formerly Assistant Secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), President of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), and Executive Director of the International Air Transport Authority (IATA).