While plastic pollution remains a daunting problem, countries have made strides in addressing it in recent years, said UNEP Deputy Executive Director Elizabeth Maruma Mrema on the eve of World Environment Day. 

“This is a problem we can fix and we are beginning to see the solutions emerge,” said Mrema during a roundtable discussion at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. 

During the session Kang Hyung-shik, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Kenya, described how his country, which is hosting World Environment Day, is striving to end plastic pollution. 

The event also featured a question-and-answer session with several UNEP staff, including Sheila Aggarwal-Khan, Director of the Industry and Economy Division, Doreen Robinson, Deputy Director of the Ecosystems Division, and Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution. 

The "Sea Women" of Jeju Island live in harmony with the ocean. These free divers are more than cultural icons; they are guardians of the sea, and they report that what once was a clear ocean floor is now littered with waste.   

Ahead of #WorldEnvironmentDay, UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen met Haenyeo diver Jang Young-mi in Jeju to learn about their efforts. 

Ahead of World Environment Day, the United Nations Environment Programme, in partnership with the Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution and Marine Litter, launched the Global Plastics Hub. 

The hub, which has been funded by the governments of Japan, Norway and the United States of America, is designed to be a one-stop shop where government officials— and others— can track 80 plastic-pollution-related indicators. The portal is among the most comprehensive platforms of its kind in the world. In-depth country dashboards track how much plastic countries trade, how they manage plastic waste and what policies they have to counter plastic pollution. It’s designed to help countries make more informed decisions about how to address plastic pollution.   

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Actor and environmentalist Alex Rendell, an avid diver, threw his support today behind the global effort to halt plastic pollution, nearly 11 million tonnes of which ends up in the ocean annually. 

“This World Environment Day on 5 June is a clarion call to end marine pollution, to keep it out of our waters and reefs, as well as our lands, air and bodies,” said Rendell, a UNEP Goodwill Ambassador, in an Instagram post. 

See the post here 

In celebration of World Environment Day, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will launch the second module of the U-Report Climate ActBot—a digital tool designed to empower young people to take climate action. 

This new module is designed to inspire young people to take concrete actions that reduce water, energy and waste consumption. Through a series of challenges, the chatbot guides users toward simple, environmentally friendly actions. 

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While World Environment Day is still one sleep away, a bevy of events are taking place around the world today. Here’s a sampling of what’s on tap. 

• A forum in Jeju, Republic of Korea will see young environmental innovators share their ideas for tackling plastic pollution. 

• UNEP’s India office and the Delhi Technological University will hold a workshop on how institutions of higher learning can reduce plastic waste both on and off campus. 

• UNEP, at its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, will host a roundtable discussion on slowing plastic pollution.  

Visit this page for a map of the more than 2,000 World Environment Day-related events taking place across the planet – and see if something is happening near you. 

To celebrate both World Environment Day and International Seaweed Day, environmental advocacy group Lonely Whale is hosting a special screening of its short documentary, Seaweed Stories, in New York City. Narrated by actor Forest Whitaker the film explores the wonders of seaweed, an often overlooked marine organism which may hold answers to some of humanity’s biggest challenges – including plastic pollution. 

Learn about the film here