World Environment Day 2019
The world turns the spotlight on air pollution.
PRESS RELEASE – 05 June 2019, Hangzhou, China – Governments, industry, communities and individuals around the world today commemorated World Environment Day, the United Nations’ biggest annual event for positive environmental action, encouraging worldwide awareness and commitment to protect our planet.
This year’s celebrations, held under the theme ‘Beat Air Pollution’, called upon people to explore renewable energy and green technologies, and improve air quality in cities and regions across the world. More than 6 billion people – one-third of them children – regularly breathe air that is so polluted it puts their health and well-being at risk.
Spearheaded by China, the official host of the global World Environment Day celebrations, UN Environment’s campaign to #BeatAirPollution culminated into a record number of registered events and commitments.
“Protecting our blue skies may be difficult, but our future relies on it,” Joyce Msuya, acting Executive Director of UN Environment, said during the global celebrations in Hangzhou. “And they are our blue skies. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Beijing or Beirut, when we look up we see the same sky. And I think when we look to China, we see many examples of how to protect it.”
Over the past decade, the Chinese government has taken drastic measures to limit air pollution in its biggest cities, bringing back blue skies in Beijing, Shanghai and other megacities, benefitting the health of millions. By implementing far-reaching measures at the national- and state-level government, such as 100 per cent electric public transportation, curtailing outputs from factories and allocating more than US$10 billion to address air quality, several cities saw the concentration of PM 2.5 drop dramatically.
“Humankind only has one planet. Environmental conservation and sustainable development are the common responsibilities of all countries. Ecological civilisation is built into China’s national development architecture and strategy. China will work with any and all to implement the 2030 agenda to protect our only planet.”
The President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, conveyed his congratulations on the occasion of World Environment Day.
For more information about the events around the world, please visit here.
