World No Tobacco Day 2022 will focus on the damage cigarettes do to the environment.

The event organised by the World Health Organization (WHO) and held annually on 31 May will this year be hosted under the theme “Tobacco’s threat to our environment.”

Ahead of World Environment Day 2022, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has renewed its collaboration with the WHO to highlight the impact cigarettes have on the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss and pollution and waste.

The tobacco industry has an annual greenhouse gas emission of 84 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Around 200,000 hectares of land are cleared for tobacco growing each year and cigarette butts are also the most littered item worldwide. The industry also poses a major challenge to keeping the environment clean and free of plastic pollution.

For more information on tobacco and the environmental crisis visit here.