World Environment Day 2025: Date, theme, history and significance

World Environment Day 2025: World Environment Day, celebrated every year on June 5, brings people together across 150+ countries to protect our planet. In 2025, South Korea hosts the event with the theme ‘Ending Plastic Pollution’

Celebrated every year on June 5, World Environment Day is the United Nations' flagship event for inspiring global awareness and collective action to protect our planet. Launched in 1973, the initiative now unites over 150 countries, driving a powerful environmental movement that brings together individuals, organizations, and governments.

Each year, the event is centered around a pressing environmental issue and is hosted by a different country. For 2025, the focus is on “Ending Plastic Pollution,” with South Korea serving as the host nation. The theme highlights the urgent need to address plastic waste, which now threatens ecosystems, human health, and biodiversity.

World Environment Day has been a powerful force behind environmental policy shifts and grassroots action. It has inspired measures like bans on single-use plastics, reforestation efforts, and greener business practices. Schools and universities also use the occasion to nurture eco-conscious values among students.

This year’s observance includes cleanup campaigns, educational panels, pledges, and eco-product exhibitions. With South Korea at the heart of official events, communities worldwide will also take part in local efforts to reduce plastic use and promote sustainability.

World Environment Day was born from the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, marking the first global effort to address the relationship between people and the planet. The first celebration occurred in 1973 with the theme “Only One Earth.” Since then, it has evolved under the leadership of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) into the largest environmental awareness day globally.

This year’s observance is particularly crucial as it leads up to the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations set for August 2025 in Geneva. The treaty aims to create a legally binding framework to combat plastic pollution on a global scale. The ongoing talks under the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) highlight the momentum behind international cooperation on this issue.