19 May 2011: The Third Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability concluded with the presentation of a memorandum to the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP). The memorandum aims to “formulate a new vision for sustainable development and prosperity,” and offers mechanisms for achieving this vision.

Over 20 Laureates and experts on sustainable development were among the Symposium participants, who met at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, from 16-19 May 2011. The “Stockholm Memorandum: Tipping the Scales toward Sustainability” was presented to the Finland’s President Tarja Halonen and other members of the Panel on 18 May 2011.

The document asserts that human-driven global change has resulted in “a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene” and that our actions now risk triggering “tipping points” that would bring abrupt and irreversible consequences. The three-page memorandum recommends a “dual track approach” consisting of both emergency solutions to stop and reverse negative environmental trends and redress inequalities, as well as long-term structural solutions to gradually change values, institutions, and policy frameworks.

It offers specific recommendations in eight areas: reaching a more equitable world; managing the climate-energy challenge; creating an efficiency revolution; ensuring affordable food for all; moving beyond green growth; reducing human pressures; strengthening Earth System Governance; and enacting a new contract between science and society.

Being part of the “first generation facing the evidence of global change,” the signatories note, have given them a unique perspective on the urgency of these actions. [Stockholm Memorandum] [Website of Symposium] [Webcast of Symposium]