Members of the Kinesis Project dance theatre descended on Manhattan in celebration of World Environment Day. As crowds looked on, the performers danced and did the limbo on Broadway to the Alok song Deep Down. They were taking part in UNEP’s global limbo dance challenge, which is helping to raise awareness about the pressing to need lower global temperatures and curtail climate change.

We’re just a couple of hours away from the start of official World Environment Day celebrations in Baku. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen are both slated to speak at the event, which will be livestreamed on UN WebTV and UNEP’s YouTube channel.

Other official celebrations will take place in Nairobi, UNEP’s home base, and New York. 

Follow the events.

The country is home to several ageing, Soviet-era oil and gas facilities that are prone to leaks of methane, one of the driving forces behind climate change. But in 2024, Azerbaijan’s state petroleum company launched what its leaders describe as a high-tech effort to almost completely cancel out methane emissions within a decade. It’s a push that some outside observers say could set an encouraging example for other petrochemical-producing countries in Southern Europe and Central Asia.

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Petroleum has been flowing from the oil fields outside of Baku, Azerbaijan since at least 1847. Today hydrocarbons still underpin the country’s economy. But wind farms and solar arrays have begun popping up across this nation of 10 million, part of what officials say is a push to turn the country into a renewable energy powerhouse.

“You can drill as many wells as you want but sooner or later your production is going to go down,” says Hikmat Abdullayev, Deputy Vice President of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic. “With renewables it’s not like that. As long as you clean your solar panels, they’re going to deliver.”

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In this video, 2022 UNEP Champion of the Earth Constantino Aucca Chutas talks about how restoring ecosystems can help communities struggling with the fallout from climate change. Aucca Chutas has spent 30 years protecting forests across Latin America, planting millions of trees in the process.

“Restoration isn’t just about ecosystems,” he says. “It’s for our own survival.”

The United Nations and European Commission marked the start of World Environment Day with a screening of Eat More Trees at the historic Cinema Vendôme. The documentary explores how agroforestry – the practice of planting trees amid crops – can restore ecosystems, counter climate change and bolster food production. 

During the event director Arne Focketyn, farmer Yanniek Schoonhoven and Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, discussed how integrating trees into agriculture can create “islands of hope” in world of deepening climate change.

Under Beat the Heat, UNEP has launched 50@50, an interactive digital experience that shows how extreme heat is reshaping urban life, how rapidly risks are increasing, and the real solutions cities are already using to stay livable in a warming world.

From an interactive map to real-world examples, you can explore how cities are preparing for rising temperatures and discover practical ideas being applied around the world. Explore the interactive.

Extreme heat is no longer a future risk: it is already one of the deadliest climate threats facing cities, straining health systems, energy grids, water supplies, and local economies. Without urgent action, up to 1.6 billion urban residents could face extreme heat by 2050.

In the lead up to World Environment Day, 50@50 is bringing cities together to prepare before a crisis strikes. By sharing data, expertise, and practical solutions, cities can reduce emissions, strengthen heat resilience, and protect people from increasingly dangerous temperatures.