Since its proclamation in 1973, World Environment Day has become a global platform for raising awareness of the state of the environment and combating pressing planetary problems.
Over the past five decades, under the leadership of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), millions of people have participated in World Environment Days, helping to bring about change and shape national and international environmental policies. Each World Environment Day focuses on a specific theme covering issues such as marine pollution, global warming, sustainable consumption and wildlife crime.
Below are highlights of the multi-year celebration of World Environment Day.
BACKGROUND
World Environment Day reaches out to small and developing countries, bringing the world’s attention to the pressing environmental issues of our time. This annual day of action, which began almost 50 years ago, has become one of the most famous international events.
2021
The focus of World Environment Day 2021 was ecosystem restoration. It was celebrated under the slogan “Rethink. Recreate. Restore.” For too long, humanity has exploited and destroyed the planet’s ecosystems. Every three seconds, the world loses a forest the size of a soccer field, and half of all wetlands have been destroyed over the past century. Up to 50 percent of coral reefs have already been lost, and up to 90 percent could be lost by 2050, even if global warming is contained within 1.5°C. The 2021 celebrations were organized by Pakistan.
2020
In 2020, the theme of World Environment Day #radiobiodiversity, an urgent and all-encompassing issue of our time. The celebrations were held under the auspices of Colombia, a country with unique natural treasures and an important role in regulating global climate and water resources. Against the backdrop of the COWID-19 crisis caused by rapid habitat destruction, President Ivan Duque Marquez urged: “The time to act is now if we want to secure our present and our future.” Fourteen world leaders, including from Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, France, and the Seychelles, issued a statement calling on governments around the world to support a new world goal to protect at least 30 percent of the land and ocean by 2030.
2019
The theme for the 2019 celebration is “Fight Air Pollution.” Air pollution is a pressing global problem that kills about 7 million people each year. Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a message to mark World Environment Day 2019, emphasized China’s willingness as a host country to share its experience in fighting air pollution with other countries. China released a report on improving air quality (2013-2018), noting policy successes and lessons learned.
2018
In India, the 45th celebration of World Environment Day was held under the theme “Fight Plastic Pollution.” More than six thousand people gathered at Versova Beach in Mumbai to join United Nations Environment Program Earth Defender Afroz Shah in cleaning up the coast, where more than 90,000 kilograms of plastic trash have been collected. The Indian government has announced a bold decision to ban all single-use plastic, which makes up to 70% of marine debris, by 2022, and European Union parliamentarians have agreed to impose a similar ban by 2025.
2017
The slogan for World Environment Day 2017, “I am with nature,” has inspired more than 1,800 events, from tree plantings in Mumbai to ivory burning in Angola to a marathon in Brazil’s Iguaçu National Park. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, host of this year’s celebration, joined then-executive director of UNEP Eric Solheim for a canoe ride on the Niagara River.
2016
The day was a springboard for the For Life on Earth campaign, the most ambitious campaign in the UN Environment Program’s digital history, and a major boost to the fight against international organized crime against wildlife. Angola, as the host country, promises to ban the ivory trade from its territory. A key destination for illegal products taken from the wild, China has pledged to close its domestic market to ivory.
2015
World Environment Day takes place online in Milan, Italy, under the theme “Seven Billion Wishes. One Planet. Consume Carefully” and is becoming the most popular topic on Twitter in more than 20 countries around the world. More than 500 videos about World Environment Day have been posted on YouTube.
2014
The theme, “Raise Your Voice, But Not Sea Level!” is designed to tell the world about the dangers facing small island nations because of climate change. At climate change talks in Paris the following year, countries reached an ambitious agreement – to limit the rise in global average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
2013
Mongolia’s 2013 campaign slogan is “Think. Eat. Conserve.” Dedicated to the huge food losses each year, the campaign empowered everyone to make informed choices to reduce the environmental impact of food production.
More than 4,000 events registered worldwide (2011); more than 4.25 million visits to the World Environment Day website (2012); Arab countries and the United States are joining the celebration for the first time; climate change has been a focus for three consecutive years.
2012
Twenty years after the Earth Summit, World Environment Day returns to Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro. The day’s theme, “The Green Economy: Are You Part of It?” was chosen in support of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Green Economy Initiative. The World Environment Day website set a new record with over 4.25 million hits.
2011
For the first time, actor Don Cheadle has more online fans than supermodel Gisele Bündchen during World Environment Day celebrations. She “missed out” on planting a forest, but next year Gisele is planting the first of 50,000 trees in the city’s Grumari Park in Rio de Janeiro. More than 4,000 events have been recorded around the world.
2010
During World Environment Day, more than $85,000 is raised to preserve the gorilla population and to install solar panels in villages in Rwanda, which hosted the day’s festivities. Through online voting, people from around the world chose names for several baby gorillas, which helped draw attention to the threatening situation for the gorilla population in the International Year of Biodiversity.
2007
The motto of the organized celebration in Tromsø, Norway was “Melting Ice is a Hot Topic!” This was the first of three consecutive years in which the world’s attention was focused on climate change and the confident statement in the IPCC’s 4th Assessment Report on Global Climate Warming.
2006
A decade after the entry into force of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, World Environment Day recalled the pressures on drylands through “Deserts and Desertification – No to Desertification Drylands!” events in Algeria.
2003
For the first time, the main celebrations take place in an Arab country, Beirut, Lebanon. The theme, “Water: Two Billion People Need It Badly!” is chosen in support of the International Year of Freshwater.
Countries accounting for nearly a third of the world’s population take turns hosting World Environment Day celebrations, including China (twice), Russia, Japan and Turkey. The campaign is moving into an online format.