First held in 1974, World Environment Day is described as "a global platform for inspiring positive change" by the United Nations Environment Programme, the organisation that created it.

It is now the largest global environmental event, with millions of people in more than 150 countries participating. The idea is to engage  individuals, communities, businesses, governments and different kinds of public into raising awareness and taking collective action.

The 2022 World Environment Day, hosted by Sweden, campaigns for "collective, transformative action on a global scale to celebrate, protect and restore our planet', encouraging everyone everywhere to live and develop sustainably. 

This year marks 50 years since the first global environment summit. In 1967, a research study provided the actual estimates of global temperature based on CO2 levels. The proposal of the Stockholm Conference was made in 1968 in Sweden which is why it is also termed as the 'Swedish Initiative'. Then in 1968-69, by resolutions 2398 and 2581, the general assembly decided to conduct the conference in Stockholm in 1972 on a global level where all countries could take part in. The main principle of the Stockholm declaration was "to serve as a practical means to encourage and to provide guidelines to protect and improve the human environment and to remedy and prevent its impairment." The Stockholm Conference was attended by 114 government delegations and 26 principles were broadly declared to recognise the human impact on environment. 

The 1972 United nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm also led to the founding of UNEP. Two years later, in 1974 the first WED was held with the theme "Only One Earth". Although Environment Day celebration have been held annually since 1974, in 1987 the idea for rotating the centre of these activities through selecting different host countries began. 

However, the lesser known facts are that Sweden is hosting World Environment Day 2022 and will also host Stockholm+50 from 2nd to 3rd June. Stockholm + 50, as the name suggests, marks the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the human Environment. Also, "Only one Earth" was the slogan for the Stockholm conference. World Environment Day is reenacting and re-energising the slogan to emphasize that planet Earth is still the only liveable planet that we have.

 

References:-

1. Rai, D. (2020, July 16). Major provisions in the Stockholm declaration. iPleaders. https://www.google.com/amp/s/blog.ipleaders.in/major-provisions-in-the-stockholm-declaration/%3famp=1

2. World Economic Forum, European Union, European Union, European Union, European Union, European Union, European Union, European Union, European Union, European Union, & European Union. (2022, May 31). Explainer: What is World Environment Day? The European Sting - Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology - Europeansting.Com. https://www.google.com/amp/s/europeansting.com/2022/05/31/explainer-what-is-world-environment-day/amp/