“We are asking too much of our planet to maintain our unsustainable ways of life. Earth’s natural systems cannot keep up with our demands. The only way forward is to work with nature, not against it”: UN Chief
New Delhi:People across the world today celebrating the World Environment Day (5 June), the biggest international day for the environment.
The event has been led by UNEP and held annually since 1973 and has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental outreach, with millions of people from across the world engaging to protect the planet.
This year, Sweden is hosting the World Environment Day with the theme “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.
The theme for this year is ‘Only One Earth’, which was also the theme of the first environment, celebrated in 1974, calls for transformative changes to policies and choices to enable cleaner, greener, and sustainable living in harmony with nature.
Five decades later, it still stands true as the Earth is still our only home, and humanity must safeguard its finite resources.
The idea of World Environment Day was coined at the 1972 UN Conference of the Human Environment in Stockholm.
It was born out of the understanding that we need to stand up to protect the air, land, and water, on which we all depend.
Since 1974, World Environment Day has been celebrated annually, and it has become an important platform for promoting progress on the environmental dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals.
“We are running against the clock,” said Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in a Video message
“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.”
A series of recent United Nation reports have found 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,” he said. “The only way forward is to work with nature, not against it.”
World Environment Day urges all of us to protect our natural surroundings. With millions of people from over 150 nations taking part, it is now the world’s largest environmental event.
The goal is to involve governments, businesses, civil society, schools, celebrities, cities, and communities in boosting environmental awareness and celebrating environmental action.
According to UNEP, despite a slew of climate agreements, progress toward halting climate change is still too slow. Individuals and civil society must play a critical role in raising awareness and pressuring governments and the private sector to make large-scale changes.
Challenges before US
In the next two decades, there is a 50% chance that global warming will exceed 1.5°C. To limit global warming to 1.5°C by the end of the century, annual greenhouse gas emissions must be cut in half by 2030.
Ecosystem degradation will affect the well-being of an estimated 3.2 billion people, or 40% of the world’s population. Under a business-as-usual scenario, annual plastic waste entering aquatic ecosystems could nearly triple from 9-14 million tons in 2016 to 23-37 million tons by 2040.
Even in the most optimistic scenario, in which net-zero emissions are achieved by 2050, global warming will continue!
All things considered, renewable energy investments that can generate high economic multipliers are the need of the hour, as they have a high potential for crowding in private investment, and are an essential step toward economy-wide decarbonisation.
An underlying theme of World Environment Day is that It’s not too late to repair the demage humanity has done. But to do that, Andersen said people need to make environmentally conscious decisions, financial institutions need to contribute the transition to a greener future and politicians must “see beyond election cycles to intergenerational wins.
“The movement that began in 1972, stands at a critical juncture today,” she said. “It is now or never.” she said.