A World Environment Day event in Paris today saw a number of speakers discuss the concept of swimmable cities. The event is timely, given that this summer’s Paris Olympics will see athletes swim the Seine for the first time in 100 years.  

Urban waterway quality mirrors the health of a community and its economy, which is why swimmable cities are on the agenda. Today’s event saw Ana Prieto López from UN Environment Programme Freshwater Division highlight the importance of healthy freshwater ecosystems in an urban context.  

Actors Don Cheadle, Dia Mirza, Jason Momoa and several other prominent personalities are urging people around the world to do their part to repair the planet. 

“It is up to all of us to take action,” said Mirza, a UN Goodwill Ambassador, in a video released on the eve of World Environment Day. 

This year, the annual celebration of the Earth focuses on ways to restore damaged landscapes, like forests, wetlands and deserts. 

The Maldives launched a tree planting program today to mark World Environment Day. The 5 Million Trees Plantation Program – announced at COP28 in 2023 – was inaugurated by Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu.  

The country has promised to plant five million trees during the president’s five-year term. The event took place in Lonuziyaaraiy Park in the capital Malé and saw 22 types of trees planted including fruit trees, shade trees, flowering trees and trees used in traditional Dhivehi medicine. 

“In the next 25 years, land degradation might reduce food productivity by 12 per cent and raise food prices by almost a third,” writes UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen in an op-ed published in Al Jazeera English today for World Environment Day.  

It’s not all doom and gloom however, with Andersen highlighting the substantial progress that has already been made. “The results already in are phenomenal. Multiple initiatives to build back degraded farmlands, forests, savannahs, grasslands, peatlands and cities are making vast areas arable again and creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs,” she writes. “This is happening across the Mediterranean, in Africa, South and East Asia and in small island developing states like Vanuatu.” 

Land restoration can be the “golden thread” that ties the three Rio Conventions – on climate, on biodiversity and on desertification – together, according to UN Environment Programme’s Executive Director Inger Andersen. In a video message released on World Environment Day, Andersen highlighted the progress made in this UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. “Last year, six countries pledged to restore 300,000 kilometres of rivers and 350 million hectares of wetlands, [while] commitments [have been made] to restore one billion hectares of land, an area larger than China.  

This was echoed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who underscored the importance of ensuring countries live up to their promises. “Countries must deliver on all their commitments to restore degraded ecosystems and land. They must use their new national climate action plans to set out how they will halt and reverse deforestation by 2030.” 

Actors Don Cheadle, Dia Mirza, Jason Momoa and several other prominent personalities are urging people around the world to do their part to repair the planet. 

“It is up to all of us to take action,” said Mirza, a UN Goodwill Ambassador, in a video released on the eve of World Environment Day. 

This year, the annual celebration of the Earth focuses on ways to restore damaged landscapes, like forests, wetlands and deserts. 

To celebrate World Environment Day, Deputy Executive Director of UN Environment Programme Elizabeth Mrema will hold a virtual conversation on 5 June with Oxford Speaks. This student-led Oxford speaker society connects students to the world’s best and brightest. The conversation will focus on Mrema’s celebrated career as a diplomat, lawyer and biodiversity activist at the highest level. Register for this online event. 

Canadian Environment Week, from 2-8 June, celebrates the country’s environmental accomplishments and encourages Canadians to conserve and restore the planet. Established in 1971, this year’s event expands upon the World Environment Day theme, celebrating the actions that people can take to create a more sustainable future.