World Environment Day targets actions for earth's sustainability

Adeze Ojukwu

This year’s World Environment Day(WED), is being marked today, with millions of people, taking actions to promote the sustainability of the earth.

Such activities, include cleaning up beaches, planting trees and holding marches in an effort to revive what experts say “is a planet on the precipice.”

Spearheaded by United Nation Environment Programme(UNEP), “the event will be commemorated both digitally and in Stockholm, Sweden two days following the Stockholm+50 international meeting.”

In a statement, the agency said “more than 150 countries are slated to host environmentally themed events on Saturday, part of an annual celebration of the Earth that dates to 1973.

According to UNEP, advocates are hoping this year’s commemoration, will encourage a global effort to tackle, what they describe as “the rapid decline of the natural world.”

Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Andersen, in a video message, said, “we are running against the clock. Today, as we look to a future of heatwaves, droughts, floods, wildfires, pandemics, dirty air, wars, and plastic-ridden oceans, action is more important than ever.”

“During the last 49 years, World Environment Day has cast a spotlight on a host of environmental problems, from pollution to the hole in the ozone layer to deforestation. This year’s event comes at a time considered by scientists and policy-makers as “emergency mode” for the planet.”

A series of recent UN reports revealed that “the climate crisis is accelerating faster than previously thought, with a 50 per cent chance that global warming will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the next five years.”

“That is combined with widespread biodiversity loss – 1 million species are threatened with extinction – and rampant pollution to create a “triple planetary crisis,” which United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said “threatens humanity’s future.”

"We can no longer ignore the alarm bells that ring louder every day. The only way forward is to work with nature, not against it,” he stressed.

Hosted by Sweden, the theme of this year’s event, is “Only One Earth” focusing on the need to live sustainably in harmony with nature. It highlights the fragility of the planet and is designed to re-enforce the idea that the Earth is humanity’s only home.

The theme echoes the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, a landmark summit that led to the creation of both UNEP and World Environment Day.

Stockholm hosted that gathering and this year it will once again be at the centre of celebrations.

“The official ceremony will be held at the Technology Museum with Swedish Minister for Climate and the Environment Annika Strandhäll and UNEP Chief, Andersen taking part with a group of young people from Voices of the Future. The event will be streamed online here.

“This year, World Environment Day is coming home to Sweden,” said Strandhäll. “All around the country, municipalities, organizations and individuals will get involved in a range of different activities to contribute to a better environment. Events at the local level can have a global impact.”

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