World Environment Day is the United Nations most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. Since it began in 1974, it has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries.
World Environment Day, commemorated every year on 5th June, is the "people's day" for doing something to take care of the Earth. That "something" can be focused locally, nationally or globally; it can be a solo action or involve a crowd. Everyone is free to choose. The Day is organised around a theme that focuses attention on a particularly pressing environmental concern. The theme for 2018 is ‘Beating plastic pollution’.
World Environment Day has a different global host country, where the official celebrations take place. The focus on the host country helps highlight the environmental challenges it faces, and supports the effort to address them. This year's host is India. In recent years, millions of people have taken part in thousands of registered activities worldwide.
It is sometimes also unofficially called Eco Day or Environment Day. The day focuses on environmental concerns ranging from pollution to global warming and sustainable food production to protection of wildlife.
In Namibia, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Environment Investment Fund (EIF) invite the public to the commemoration of the World Environment Day today.
The commemoration was held at Government Office Park, Auditorium.
World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly to mark the opening 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Since its inception, it has grown to become a global platform for action in which the UN promotes worldwide awareness on the environment and the importance of taking care for it. It is the day that stimulates and encourages political attention and action towards the environment.
World Environment Day is also recognised as the “people’s day” to remind us that humans around the world are an integral part of the environment and therefore we should take ownership of the environment and actively engage in the protection of our earth.
The theme this year speaks to beating plastic pollution, and urges that if you can’t reuse it, refuse it. The theme urges governments, industries, communities and individuals to come together and explore sustainable alternatives and urgently reduce the production and excessive use of single-use plastic polluting our oceans, damaging marine life and threatening human health.
Namibia being part of the UN and global community at large will join the entire world in commemorating the World Environment Day under the local theme ‘Namibia, healthy and clean’.
