diff --git a/.release-notes/3686.md b/.release-notes/3686.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ff9e1e6682
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.release-notes/3686.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+## Fix link errors on macOS Big Sur
+
+With the change from Catalina to Big Sur, Apple moved the location of the System library, which broke the linking phase of the compiler. This change fixes the problem by specifying the absolute path of the System library.
diff --git a/src/libponyc/codegen/genexe.c b/src/libponyc/codegen/genexe.c
index 0178a09de2..b3e7a48ae9 100644
--- a/src/libponyc/codegen/genexe.c
+++ b/src/libponyc/codegen/genexe.c
@@ -287,14 +287,15 @@ static bool link_exe(compile_t* c, ast_t* program,
     "";
 #endif
 
-  size_t ld_len = 128 + arch_len + strlen(linker) + strlen(file_exe) +
+  size_t ld_len = 256 + arch_len + strlen(linker) + strlen(file_exe) +
     strlen(file_o) + strlen(lib_args) + strlen(sanitizer_arg);
 
   char* ld_cmd = (char*)ponyint_pool_alloc_size(ld_len);
 
   snprintf(ld_cmd, ld_len,
     "%s -execute -no_pie -arch %.*s "
-    "-macosx_version_min 10.12 -o %s %s %s %s -lSystem %s",
+    "-macosx_version_min 10.12 -o %s %s %s %s "
+    "-L/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/lib -lSystem %s",
            linker, (int)arch_len, c->opt->triple, file_exe, file_o,
            lib_args, ponyrt, sanitizer_arg
     );