Swedish Crown Princess Victoria Tuesday opened the 3rd Nobel Laureate Symposium at the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
"Today we have reached a crossroad, we have to choose the way ahead. In 50 years time, that may show that we failed to lay the foundation for a new world in the future, or that may show we have succeeded thanks to our farsighted thinking and common efforts and the willingness to change the world into a better place," stressed Victoria the urgency of dealing with the climate change issue in her opening speech at the room where Nobel Prize in sciences and economics were declared every year.
She called on actions to be taken immediately to change our lifestyles and the manner of using energy. More wind turbines and solar panels should be used to increase the renewable energy.
The symposium is jointly organized by the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Stockholm Environment Institute, the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
"The symposium is about the understanding of not only climate issues, but also the ecosystems," Johan Rockstrom, Chair of the symposium, said at a press conference before the opening.
The symposium will sign a Stockholm Memorandum and deliver it to the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability. It will also provide suggestions and proposals in how to realize energy efficiency and use more renewable energy.
"Currently, the natural capital is used as if there are more than one earth, but there is only one earth," the Swedish environment minister Andreas Carlgren said at the press conference.
"Rich and developed countries have more footprints, thus they must take the initiative to reduce it while developing countries have the legitimate right to develop," said Carlgren who also attend the symposium.
The three day symposium brings together more than 20 Nobel Laureates in chemistry, physics and economics including Elinor Ostrom from the U.S. and many others.
The first Nobel Laureate symposium was held in Potsdam in 2007 and the second was held in London in 2009.