World Environment Day celebrated with focus on climate change

The world marks World Environment Day on June 5, with this year's theme, "Inspired by Nature. For the Climate. For our Future," emphasizing climate change and nature-based solutions. The official celebrations are hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) leads the global campaign, using the slogan #NowForClimate to encourage reduced greenhouse gas emissions, ecosystem protection, and an accelerated ecological transition.

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The planet does not discuss. It does not negotiate. It sends signals: rising sea levels, devastating fires, heatwaves, melting glaciers. We said 1.5 degrees was the limit. We are exceeding it.

The UNEP highlights the planet's urgent signals, including rising sea levels, devastating wildfires, and heatwaves, noting that the 1.5-degree Celsius limit is being surpassed. However, the campaign also points to a growing wave of climate solutions taking root worldwide, such as solar panels on rooftops, wind turbines, human-centered urban redesign, and reforestation efforts.

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But now listen more closely. Beneath the noise, another signal is rising. Solar panels stretch across rooftops. Wind turbines dot the horizon. Cities are being redesigned for people. Forests are being reforested. Climate solutions are taking root in every corner of the planet.

In Italy, the focus is on nature-based solutions and climate resilience, as explained by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra). The goal is to raise public awareness about the need for concrete actions to combat the environmental crisis, linking ecosystem protection directly to climate resilience. Ispra describes World Environment Day as the UN's primary vehicle for fostering global environmental awareness and action.

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2015-2025 are the warmest years ever recorded, a transition is urgently needed.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a global call to action, noting that the years 2015-2025 represent the warmest period on record. He warned that by 2050, drought could affect over three-quarters of the world's population, and glaciers are projected to disappear from a third of their current areas. Guterres stressed the urgent need to limit the extent and severity of exceeding climate limits and to rapidly reverse the trend of rising temperatures by drastically reducing emissions. He advocated for an "equitable transition towards a world free from fossil fuels and centered on renewable energies" as a means to lower costs and ensure genuine energy security.

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We must limit the extent, duration and danger of this exceeding of limits and rapidly reverse the trend of rising temperatures - emissions must be drastically reduced.