United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Head of the UN Environment Erik Solheim announced on 19 February that India will host the global World Environment Day celebrations on 5 June 2018.
- The Central Government will organize and promote the World Environment Day celebrations through a series of engaging activities and events generating strong public interest and participation. It include pan India plastic clean-up drives in public areas, national reserves and forests to simultaneous beach clean-up activities.
- Theme: World Environment Day 2018 will be celebrated with the theme of “Beat Plastic Pollution”.
- This theme urges governments, industry, communities and individuals to come together and explore sustainable alternatives and urgently reduce the production and excessive use of single-use plastic that is polluting our oceans, damaging marine life and threatening human health.
- World Environment Day is a UN Environment-led global event, the single largest celebration of our environment each year, which takes place on June 5 and is celebrated by thousands of communities worldwide.
About Plastic Pollution
- Every year the world uses 500 billion plastic bags.
- Each year, at least 8 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans, the equivalent of a full garbage truck every minute.
- In the last decade, the world has produced more plastic than in the whole last century
- 50 per cent of the plastic we use is single-use or disposable
- The world buy 1 million plastic bottles every minute
- Plastic makes up 10% of all of the waste we generate. (Source: UNEP)
About the World Environment Day
- The first major conference on environmental issues, convened under the auspices of the United Nations, was held from June 5-16 in Stockholm (Sweden) in 1972. The conference was known as the Conference on the Human Environment, or the Stockholm Conference.The goal of the conference was to forge a basic common outlook on how to address the challenge of preserving and enhancing the human environment.
- On 15 December 1972 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution (A/RES/2994 (XXVII)) designating June 5 as World Environment Day and urging “Governments and the organizations in the United Nations system to undertake on that day every year world-wide activities reaffirming their concern for the preservation and enhancement of the environment. The date coincides with the first day of the landmark Conference.
- Also on 15 December 1972, the General Assembly adopted another resolution (A/RES/3000 (XXVII)) that led to the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the specialized agency on environmental issues.
- The first World Environment Day was celebrated in 1974.
