World Environment Day (This Sunday)

World Environment Day (WED), which is this Sunday, is the biggest international day for the environment, led by the United Nations Environment Programme and held annually since 1974.

It 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’s slogan is “Only One Earth”, to emphasize that planet Earth is still the only live-able planet we have and that we need to work together to reset the balance between people and the natural world.

WED will be hosted by Sweden this year, a country which aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045, and where people will gather to call for action to celebrate, protect and restore our planet.

Here are some facts and figures about where we are at the minute:

• We are using the equivalent of 1.6 Earths to maintain our current way of life.
• 9 out of 10 people breathe unclean air, making it the most significant environmental health risk.
• From 1950 to 2017, 9.2 billion tons of plastic was produced, 7 billion tons of it became waste.