World Environment Day 2020
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP, or UN Environment) annually organizes events for World Environment Day, which encourages worldwide awareness and action for the protection of the environment.
It is celebrated on 5 June in over 100 countries. In 2020, Columbia will host the global World Environment Day celebrations. World Environment Day 2020 calls for urgent action to protect biodiversity.
History of World Environment Day
World Environment Day [WED] was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972. The first WED was held in 1974 with the theme “Only One Earth”. Since then, World Environment Day is celebrated on the 5th of June every year and has been a flagship campaign for raising awareness on emerging environmental issues from marine pollution, human over-population, and global warming, to sustainable consumption and wildlife crime.
World Environment Day has grown to become a global platform for public outreach, with participation from over 143 countries annually. Each year, World Environment Day has a new theme that major corporations, NGOs, communities, governments and celebrities worldwide adopt to advocate environmental causes.
World Environment Day 2020
World Environment Day offers a global platform for inspiring positive change. It recognizes that global change requires a global community. Every World Environment Day is hosted by a different country, in which official celebrations take place. The idea for rotating the centre of these activities through selecting different host countries began in 1987. This year’s host is Colombia in partnership with Germany.
World Environment Day 2020 Theme:
In 2020, the theme is biodiversity–a concern that is both urgent and existential. Recent events, from bushfires in Brazil, the United States and Australia to locust infestations across East Africa–and now, a global disease pandemic–demonstrate the interdependence of humans and the webs of life in which they exist.
ITS TIME FOR NATURE
World Environment Day 2020 calls for urgent action to protect biodiversity.
Following the decisions taken by UN Member States in the Convention on Biological Biodiversity, UNEP and its partners are launching the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030), a global initiative to restore the relationship between humans and nature.
UNEP is also working with world leaders to develop a new and ambitious Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to realize a 2050 Vision of Living in Harmony with Nature.
Living in harmony with nature can only be achieved if we reverse negative impact of biodiversity loss and pursue full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
World Environment Day celebrations will help build momentum and unite the global community in actions for positive change.
Why Do We Mark International Days?
International days are occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity.
The existence of international days predates the establishment of the United Nations, but the UN has embraced them as a powerful advocacy tool.
