THEME: #ONLYONEEARTH 

The theme #OnlyOneEarth was the same slogan as the 1972 Stockholm Conference, emphasizing the need to bring people and nature back into balance. Earth faces a triple planetary emergency: the climate is heating up too quickly for people and nature to adapt; habitat loss and other pressures mean an estimated 1 million species are threatened with extinction; and pollution continues to poison our air, land and water.  

2022 was a historic milestone for the global environmental community. It marked 50 years since the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, widely seen as the first international meeting on the environment. The Stockholm Conference spurred the formation of environment ministries and agencies around the world and kickstarted a host of new global agreements to collectively protect the environment. It was also where the goals of poverty alleviation and environmental protection became linked, paving the way for the Sustainable Development Goals.  

FOCUS 

The world’s most vulnerable communities are often the most impacted by the environmental crisis. Of the 7 million people who die annually as a result of air pollution, a disproportionate number are children and the elderly, and most are in the developing world. In 2020, climate shocks forced 30 million people to flee their homes – around three times more than those displaced by war and violence. By 2050, the number of people displaced by the environmental crisis could be as high as 200 million. We are using the equivalent of 1.6 Earths to maintain our current way of life, and ecosystems cannot keep up with our demands. Tackling these crises is critical to saving lives and improving the future of billions of people. Individuals and civil society must play a key role in raising awareness and urging governments and the private sector to make large-scale changes.  

HOST COUNTRY  

Sweden was the host country for the 2022 World Environment Day and hosted Stockholm+50 from 2 to 3 June. Stochkolm+50 marked the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972. World Environment Day 2022 leveraged this opportunity to showcase some of Sweden’s pioneering work on the environment over the past 50 years. UNEP worked with Sweden to showcase these innovations through a series of written stories and short videos shared online. 

JOIN THE MOVEMENT 

The campaign #OnlyOneEarth called for collective, transformative action on a global scale to celebrate, protect and restore our planet. The campaign also provided case studies and promoted best practices, helping governments, businesses, institutions and individuals to scale up environmental action, supporting the significant, urgent change we need. While our individual consumption choices do make a difference, it is collective action that will disrupt the status quo. We need to collectively make immediate and transformative change and advance to a more sustainable and just Earth, where everyone can flourish.  

HIGHLIGHTS  

UNEP’s sophisticated communication and social media outreach strategy paid off. Using the slogan #OnlyOneEarth, social media, video, live streaming, interactive web pages, traditional media outreach, and short and long-form articles served to drive awareness, engagement and push for action. They also worked to highlight the events, campaigns and announcements that took place around World Environment Day.  

• 67.5M - views of UNEP content such as Earth Action Numbers, videos and live updates, news and stories. 

• 48,540 - news articles in 166 countries in 54 languages. 

• No. 1 global trending Term - #WorldEnvironmentDay on X (formerly Twitter) on 5 June. 

• #OnlyOneEarth Practical Guide was downloaded over 55,000 times – a new campaign record.