World Environment Day is celebrated every year on the 5th of June as declared by the UN General Assembly in 1972, in order to create global awareness about environmental problems and the need to address them. One more aim is to encourage states and governments to actively support sustainable development, to inform, educate and promote a change of environmental behavior for the sake of future generations.
Each year, the Day is presented with a special theme and is officially hosted by a different country, with special celebrations including events, shows, demonstrations, seminars.
The key takeaway of these celebrations is, however, common, all around the world: the need to realize that humankind needs to coexist with the environment. Global leaders, organizations, NGOs, the general public, we must all realize that safeguarding the environment is not an option, but an imperative approach. This is also the substance of Sustainable Development, as set out by the 1987 Bruntland Commission: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.