Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reaffirmed yesterday commitments to conserve 30 per cent of Canada’s lands, put a price on pollution and speed the transition to electric vehicles. 

”It is our collective responsibility to protect, restore, and preserve the environment for our children and grandchildren,” Trudeau said in a statement marking World Environment Day. 

Meanwhile, environment minister Steven Guilbeault outlined Canada’s environmental priorities during a riverside jog. That is because, as luck would have it, Wednesday 5 June, was also Global Running Day. 

Elizabeth Mrema, UN Environment Programme Deputy Executive Director, participated in a virtual conversation with a student-led Oxford speaker society to mark World Environment Day. 

 

In her speech, Mrema stressed the importance of multilateralism and building bridges among a wide and diverse group of stakeholders as the only way to restore degraded ecosystems, combat desertification and drought, and find solutions to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.  

“Together, we can create a resilient, sustainable, and prosperous future for all,” she concluded.  

Kenyan music band Future Sounds and Kimmy Wangari performed at the UN Office in Nairobi a World Environment Day track they wrote on the occasion of this year’s celebrations. Performers included Maasai singers. Listen to the song That’s What Earth Said.

More than 3,600 officially registered events were held Wednesday to mark World Environment Day, an all-time high. The festivities included everything from a high-level gathering in host country, Saudi Arabia, to the reveal of North America’s largest mural. Tens of millions of people joined the online global conversation, with #WorldEnvironmentDay trending on social media. Countries around the world also stepped up their commitments to the environment, with nations from Bangladesh to Canada pledging to protect and restore natural spaces. 

Restoring healthy rivers is key to fostering resilient societies, economies and ecosystems. That is why, on World Environment Day, marathoner Mina Guli kicked off a campaign to run thousands of kilometers along 20 rivers on six continents. The effort, which begins with an 848-kilometre jaunt down France’s Seine River, is designed to show that pollution can be reduced and rivers can be restored. 

Lost Witness and BRÏAH's new song "Last Call" raises awareness about the climate emergency and encourages action to safeguard the earth. 

With more than 3,000 World Environment Day events across the planet, people everywhere are heeding the call to protect and restore the natural world. 

That was the message today from UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen, who was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for festivities. 

On the social media site X (formerly Twitter), Andersen said restoring damaged landscapes can help counter climate change, bolster biodiversity and improve human health. 

“When we invest in land restoration, we are getting so many returns,” she said.

There is an 80 per cent chance that the annual average global temperature will reach 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for at least one of the next five years, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization. The 1.5°C mark is a significant one: the most ambitious target of the Paris Agreement on climate change called on countries to keep warming below that level. 

World Press Photo, a Netherlands-based non-profit, is looking back at a series of award-winning pictures that chart the fallout from the climate crisis. The pictures cover everything from wildfires in Canada to droughts in the Amazon Basin. 

António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, has called on countries to bar advertising for fossil fuels, describing coal, oil and gas companies as “agents of chaos.” Speaking at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, he also urged news media and tech companies to shun fossil-fuel advertising. 

In his address, Guterres pushed for a quicker transition away from fossil fuels. “It’s ‘We the Peoples’ versus the polluters and the profiteers,” he said. “Together, we can win. But it’s time for leaders to decide whose side they’re on.”