World Environment Day celebrations
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On 5 June, World Environment Day was celebrated all over the world. With more than 6,000 events across the globe and countless pledges and commitments by individuals, business and communities, air pollution has been brought to the attention of millions.
From clean-ups in Tokyo to tree planting in Zimbabwe, World Environment Day was celebrated around the globe under the theme of air pollution, with China hosting this international day of action.
With 7 million people dying each year from air pollution, the time couldn’t have been more fitting to encourage everyone to find solutions to this truly global problem.
Although it is very hard to narrow it down, here is a very short overview of some of the achievements, including some highlights in Brussels. Check out our website for many more stories.
Hangzhou glittered at the opening ceremony of World Environment Day
"Beat Air Pollution,” was celebrated by host city Hangzhou alongside multiple cities in China. President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, was clear in his call for international cooperation: "Humankind only has one planet. Environmental conservation and sustainable development are the common responsibility of all countries. China will work with any and all to implement the 2030 agenda to protect our only planet.” #BeatAirPollution was the top-trending hashtag on Weibo, one of China’s largest social media platforms. Tagged posts appeared in front of some 520 million users on 5 June, doubling last year’s reach.
Pledges to tackle air pollution flooded in from around the world
From India and Nigeria to the Bluebird Taxi company in Indonesia to the Swiss apparel industry — companies, governments and organizations lined up to #BeatAirPollution. In the Brussels Capital Region the regional government launched a campaign to tackle the issue of 'sole car drivers' and get people to take public transport or find alternative means of transport instead when commuting in Brussels, also referred to as "Destination Partagee."
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres video message
In his message to governments, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called to "tax pollution; end fossil fuel subsidies; and stop building new coal plants. We need a green economy not a grey economy." However he remained confident - "from pressuring politicians and businesses to changing our own habits, we can reduce pollution and beat climate change."
Celebrations in Brussels - some highlights -
In Brussels, World Environment Day celebrations kicked off with the traditional Festival de l'Environnement organized by Bruxelles Environnement (also known as IBGE), the public service responsible for the environment and energy at the Brussels-Capital Region, from 31 May to 2 June.
For its 20th edition, the Festival de l’Environnement was spread over 3 days of public celebrations around its local theme of “Sustainable Generations.” The programme included a series of innovative interactive events such as the Happy Ears Party on 31 May and the first ecological hackaton Ideate4Climate on 1 June. The hackaton brought together experts and citizens to come up with creative projects to enhance environmental sustainability in our day to day lives in the city. It resulted in innovative products, of which the 3 finalists: Greenquest: an application listing local citizen s' initiatives; Greeningfordummies: A greenery kits rental system; Bike@Roundschools: a subsidy mechanism for cycling ranks at schools.
On 2 Ju
ne, the Fête de l’Environnement at the Parc du Cinquantenaire welcomed over 20.000 visitors, in a festival village offering information, animations for young and old, sustainable Good Food and much more. New this year was a partnership with the Fête du Vélo, an initiative of the organisers of the Grand Depart of the Tour de France from Brussels early July. This part of the Festival highlighted the bicycle as an exponent of sport, leisure and a healthy and sustainable transport mode that helps #BeatAirPollution. Visitors could ride mountain bikes, compete on racing bikes, make music with arty bicycle pieces and if you were lucky you could bump into legendary Belgian Tour de France winner Eddy Merckx. The event preceded World Bicycle Day happening on 3 June.
On 3 June, to mark World Environment Day, the UN Regional Information Centre together with the European Commission and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), organized a CineONU screening of the documentary The Biggest Little Farm with the support of film distributor Cinemien. The screening at BOZAR was followed by a discussion with the film Director John Chester, Film Director and film's main male character, and representatives from the European Commission's Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development and FAO. Read more here.
On 5 June, the Brussels Public Transport company STIB/MIVB informed its passengers about World Environment Day across their entire network. Through text messages on timetable screens and digital billboards of JC Decaux in the metro stations, the company thanked the travelers that day for taking public transport and thereby help improve air quality in the city.
In addition, people commuting by Metro, were treated with the World Environment Day song every hour between 8.00 am and 7.00 pm in the metro stations.
Also in Brussels, the Brussels Government launched an 'autosolism awareness campaign' in the context of World Environment Day on 5 June - introducing the Mobility Passport. The intention: to encourage everyone to think differently about their own mobility in and around Brussels. Starting on World Environment Day, from Wednesday 5 June every company or individual is given the opportunity to discover the current mobility offer in Brussels (beyond the car) for free for three weeks (until 26 June) with a Mobility Passport.
#BeatAirPollution tag went viral
From Hollywood to Bollywood, from the corporate world to community groups, our mask challenge made waves. More than 500,000 tweets used the #WorldEnvironmentDay hashtag, which was the #1 trending topic worldwide.
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“We have just concluded an outstanding World Environment Day, where we saw hundreds of thousands of people around the world, demonstrate that it is indeed possible to #BeatAirPollution and commit to action for people and planet,” said Joyce Msuya, Acting Executive Director of UN Environment.
“But while we have concluded the event, the work is just beginning and we look forward to working with partners, cities, governments, citizens, civil society and private sector, to achieve our ambition of clean air for everyone, everywhere. There can be no more basic need for humanity than this.”
For more read here.
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