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World Environment Day Explores Ways of Achieving Greener Cities
San Francisco hosted this year´s World Environment Day making this city the first US city to host this major global event. This years edition promoting the idea of green cities gathered mayors, United Nation officials, politicians and activists from the US and other countries such as Turkey, Brazil, Panama and India among others. The 5-day event was devoted to the exploration of ways of making cities more environmentally friendly and resource-efficient.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke as part of the 2005 World Environment Day conference. He focused his speech on the need of applying the environmental technologies and expertise already available to create green cities. Al Gore was among the special guests attending the event. He delivered a speech about climate change warning against the problem of global warming.
World Environment Day was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to foster environmental awareness and encourage action at a global level. It is celebrated each year on 5 June. After 33 years, the event was hosted for the first in San Francisco, a city ranked as the most sustainable city in the US.
Each of the five days celebrating this years edition was devoted to specific sub-themes: food water and air; recycling and green building; transportation; energy-related issues, biodiversity and open spaces. Information on the different events carried out can be found on World Environmental Days webpage. Besides, the UN has released and Atlas summarizing major environmental transformations in the world. Entitled One Planet, Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment, the book is already available at UNEP´s online bookstore.
The event ended with big city mayors signing an Environmental Accord aiming at improving urban conditions by making cities greener and healthier to be lived in. United Nations Environment Program Executive Director Klaus Toepfer attending the event pointed out: with careful planning our cities can become places where the hopes of the millions of people who flock to them can be realized. Places where people can live in a clean and healthy environment, where they can find work and where children can get a good education.