Guest post by: Adam Rochwerg, Intern at the United Nations Environment Programme’s Regional office for North America
Island inhabitants are suffering, water levels are rising, and livelihoods of island dwellers are increasingly threatened. The global environmental community is working hard to bring notoriety to this plight, yet more needs to be done – everyone needs to get involved.
On June 5, the global community will commemorate World Environment Day. Organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Environment Day is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Since the first World Environment Day in 1973, it has grown to be a broad, global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in more than 100 countries.
This year, World Environment Day celebrations are focusing on three areas: Small Island Developing States (SIDS), climate change, and sea level rise. In support of the UN designation of 2014 as the International Year of Small Island Developing States, World Environment Day will highlight the plight of SIDS in the broader context of climate change. The purpose of this theme is to build momentum towards the Third International Conference on SIDS, which is taking place this year from 1-4 September in Samoa. Further, UNEP hopes to encourage a greater understanding of the importance of SIDS and the urgency needed to help protect SIDS from growing risks and vulnerabilities associated with climate change.
World Environment Day 2014 involves a UNEP challenge, facilitated by UNEP’s celebrity ambassadors: actors Don Cheadle and Ian Somerhalder, supermodel Giselle Bundchen, and soccer player Yaya Touré. Each challenges individuals to conserve electricity, reduce carbon footprints, utilize green practices, and avoid unnecessary plastics. UNEP has also challenged individuals and organizations to record their actions, leading to a database of World Environment Day-related activities.
The challenges facing SIDS are many, and they need the attention of the global community. Rising sea levels have infiltrated freshwater reserves, agricultural systems, and have begun a process of landmass erosion. Some small island states are barely a meter above sea level, and rising water levels severely threaten their existence. There must be more discussion on marine conservation, funds for adaptation to rising sea levels, sustainable island development, water scarcity, and reactions to flooding coastal regions. We believe World Environment Day is an excellent opportunity to raise a call for solidarity with small islands threatened by climate change and rising sea levels.
World Environment Day serves as an opportunity for global involvement in the fight to save the environment. It represents a ‘people’s day‘ aimed at turning individual acts into a collective response to environmental issues, but this collective action only works if individuals actually get involved. Public outreach and accessibility is essential. What will you be doing to celebrate and honor World Environment Day?
Adam Rochwerg is a second year Canadian law student at the University of Ottawa, currently interning at the United Nations Environment Programme’s Regional office for North America. He is interested in global environmental governance and the law as a mechanism for policy. UNEP’s Regional Office for North America is the focal point for the United Nations Environment Programme in this vastly important region. It focuses on outreach in the Canadian and American governments, and environmentally-related issues of importance to the region.
