World Environment Day is the United Nations flagship environmental event, celebrated every year on 5 June in more than 100 countries around the world. This year the theme for World Environment Day 2008 is “Kick the Habit: Towards a Low Carbon Economy”, which recognizes the damaging extent of our addiction, and it shows the way forward.

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World Environment Day is the United Nations flagship environmental event, celebrated every year on 5 June in more than 100 countries around the world. It was established in 1972 by the United Nations General Assembly and its commemoration is entrusted to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), whose international headquarters are located in Nairobi, Kenya.

The purpose of World Environment Day is to focus worldwide attention on the importance of the environment and stimulate political attention and action. The event seeks to give a human face to environmental issues; empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development; promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate partnership, which will ensure that all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.

Each year, a different city is chosen as the principal venue for the global celebration of World Environment Day. The host government and/or city, in cooperation with UNEP, set the tone for the event. A theme, slogan and logo are selected to be the focus for all World Environment Day information materials and promotional activities worldwide.

Interest in World Environment Day is growing each year, as evidenced by the number of countries which lend their support to this important United Nations Day, by the expanding list of municipalities, businesses and communities that participate, and by the hundreds of thousands of individuals who visit UNEP’s World Environment Day web site.

Activities planned before and during World Environment Day are wide ranging. Essentially, it is a “people’s event”, with colourful activities such as street rallies, bicycle parades, green concerts, essay competitions in schools, tree planting, recycling and clean up campaigns.

World Environment Day is also meant to be an “intellectual” event, providing opportunities for seminars, workshops and symposiums on preserving the environmental health of our planet for the benefit of generations to come. The media play a critical role, and the event inspires thousands of journalists around the world to report on the environment.

The environmental, economic and political implications of global warming are profound. Ecosystems — from mountain to ocean, from the Poles to the tropics — are undergoing rapid change. Low-lying cities face inundation, fertile lands are turning to desert, and weather patterns are becoming ever more unpredictable.

The cost will be borne by all. The poor will be hardest hit by weather-related disasters and by soaring price inflation for staple foods, but even the richest nations face the prospect of economic recession and a world in conflict over diminishing resources.

Mitigating climate change, eradicating poverty and promoting economic and political stability all demand the same solution: we must kick the carbon habit. This is the theme for World Environment Day 2008. “Kick the Habit: Towards a Low Carbon Economy”, recognizes the damaging extent of our addiction, and it shows the way forward.

The Day enhances political attention and action. Local and regional officials, Heads of State and Government and, of course, Ministers of the Environment deliver statements and commit themselves to care for the Earth.

World Environment Day also provides an opportunity to sign or ratify international conventions.