The statement, signed by Nobel laureates including Brian Schmidt, the Dalai Lama, Steven Chu, Shirin Ebadi, Jennifer Doudna, Alice Munro and Paul Nurse, implores leaders to act: “Time is running out to prevent irreversible changes. The long-term potential of humanity depends upon our ability today to value our common future. Ultimately, this means valuing the resilience of societies and the resilience of Earth’s biosphere.” The statement calls on leaders to take action to halve greenhouse gas emissions and reverse loss of nature by 2030.
The statement was issued by the steering committee of the first Nobel Prize summit, Our Planet, Our Future. The summit was hosted by the Nobel Foundation and organized by the National Academy of Sciences with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics.
Professor Johan Rockström, PIK Director, and organizer of the summit said, “Never have we seen such a loud and clear call to humanity from our most respected scholars. With one voice they conclude we face unacceptable risks. The risks are colossal, the necessary action will be unprecedented. This decade societies must halve emissions of greenhouse gases and reverse loss of nature to become nature positive.”
The first Nobel Prize Summit brought together Nobel Prize laureates and other esteemed leaders in the sciences, policy, business, the youth movement, and the arts to explore actions that can be achieved this decade to put the world on a path to a more sustainable, more prosperous future for all. Inspired by the summit’s discussions, Nobel Prize laureates from around the world and other experts issued a statement that called for urgent action, stressing the need to for humanity to establish a new relationship with the planet and offering seven proposals.
The full text of the statement is available here.
Das Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung (PIK) ist eines der weltweit führenden Institute in der Forschung zu globalem Wandel, Klimawirkung und nachhaltiger Entwicklung. Natur- und Sozialwissenschaftler erarbeiten hier interdisziplinäre Einsichten, welche wiederum eine robuste Grundlage für Entscheidungen in Politik, Wirtschaft und Zivilgesellschaft darstellen. Das PIK ist ein Mitglied der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
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