Take action against climate change

TODAY World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated across the globe under the theme ‘Your Planet Needs You – Unite to Combat Climate Change’.

The theme reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen later in the year, and the links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests.World Environment Day was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.Commemorated yearly on June 5, the day is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. The day’s agenda is to give a human face to environmental issues, to empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development, to promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues and to advocate partnerships which will ensure that all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.In Namibia the day is celebrated under the theme ‘Namibia and Climate Change – Local Action with a Global Impact’.