Envis Centre, Ministry of Environment & Forest, Govt. of India

Printed Date: Thursday, December 19, 2024

World Environment Day

            The “World Environment Day” (WED) was first celebrated by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. Since then every year it is being celebrated worldwide with the motto of stimulating worldwide awareness on environment and web all the living creatures on our mother earth without disturbing the equilibrium and ecobalance.WED is hosted every year by a different city and commemorated with an international exposition on 5th June. The U.N. uses WED to stimulate awareness of the environment and enhance political attention and publication. Cities have become the dominant institutions of our global civilization.

 

In the 1960s and 1970s, with the gradual development of the environmental protection movements in many counties around the world, environmental degradation became a serious social problem. There arose frequently some transnational environmental problems. Environmental issues and environmental movements gradually came into the international community life.

 

The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held from 5 to 16 June 1972 in Stockholm. Representatives of governments and non-governmental persons from 113 nations discussed contemporary world environmental problems and global environmental protection strategy. The conference produced Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and Action Plan for the Human Environment comprising 109 recommendations, putting forward 7 common proclamations and 26 common principles to encourage and instruct people around the world to preserve and improve the human environment and also suggested to designate the opening day of the conference as the “World Environment Day.”

 

            In October 1972, the 27th United Nations Conference designated June 5 as the “World Environment Day.” The United Nations will make the theme of the “World Environment Day” each year based on the main environmental problems and environmental hot issues of that year. The United Nations systems and all governments carry out various kinds of activities on this day to spread the importance of protecting and improving the human environment. And meanwhile the United Nations Environment Program publishes the Annual Environment Report and holds the international conference to honor “World Top 500.”

 

This programme is basically structured to form a network to evolve an effective method to make community participate in protection and conservation of environmental resources. 

The international theme for World Environment Day

2024: "Our Land. Our Future. We are #GenerationRestoration " 

2023: "Solutions to Plastic Pollution "

2022: "Only One Earth "

2021: "Ecosystem Restoration "

2020: "Biodiversity "

2019: "Air Pollution"

2018: "Beat Plastic Pollution"

2017: "Connecting People to Nature"

2016: "Go Wild for Life!"

2015: “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care”.

2014:  “small island developing states” or “SIDS” and “Raise your voice, not the sea level”.

2013:  "Think.Eat.Save & Slogan was "Reduce Your Foodprint"

2012: “Green Economy: Does it include you?”

2011: “Forests: Nature at Your Service”

2010: “Biodiversity — Ecosystems Management and the Green Economy”

2009: “Your Planet Needs You - UNite to Combat Climate Change”

2008: “Kick the Habit - Towards A Low Carbon Economy”

2007: “Melting Ice – a Hot Topic?”

2006: “Deserts and Desertification - Don't Desert Drylands!”

2005: “Green Cities – Plan for the Planet!”

2004: “Wanted! Seas and Oceans – Dead or Alive?”

2003: “Water – Two Billion People are Dying for It!”

2002: “Give Earth a Chance”

2001: “Connect with the World Wide Web of Life”

2000: “The Environment Millennium - Time to Act”

1999: “Our Earth - Our Future - Just Save It!”

1998: “For Life on Earth - Save Our Seas”

1997: “For Life on Earth”

1996: “Our Earth, Our Habitat, Our Home”

1995: “We the Peoples: United for the Global Environment”

1994: “One Earth One Family”

1993: “Poverty and the Environment - Breaking the Vicious Circle”

1992: “Only One Earth, Care and Share”

1991: “Climate Change. Need for Global Partnership”

1990: “Children and the Environment”

1989: “Global Warming; Global Warning”

1988: “When People Put the Environment First, Development Will Last”

1987: “Environment and Shelter: More Than A Roof”

1986: “A Tree for Peace”

1985: “Youth: Population and the Environment”

1984: “Desertification”

1983: “Managing and Disposing Hazardous Waste: Acid Rain and  Energy”

1982: “Ten Years After Stockholm (Renewal of Environmental  Concerns)”

1981: “Ground Water; Toxic Chemicals in Human Food Chains”

1980: “A New Challenge for the New Decade: Development Without Destruction”

1979: “Only One Future for Our Children - Development Without Destruction”

1978: “Development Without Destruction”

1977: “Ozone Layer Environmental Concern; Lands Loss and Soil Degradation”

1976: “Water: Vital Resource for Life”

1975: “Human Settlements”

1974: “Only one Earth during Expo'74”

1973: “Only one Earth ”