The World Environment Day is observed on the 5th of June annually to encourage awareness and environmental protection.
Important points:
- The United Nations Assembly established World Environment Day in 1972, which was the first day of the Stockholm Conference on the human environment.
- ‘Ecosystem Restoration’.
- It will kick off the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) – a global mission to revive billions of hectares, from forests to farmlands, from the top of mountains to the depth of the sea.
- The theme for this year’s in India is ‘promotion of biofuels for a better environment’.
- Pakistan will be the global host for 2021.
Initiatives Taken by India:
- E-100 pilot project has been launched in Pune for the production and distribution of ethanol across the country.
- The government is releasing the E-20 notification that will allow oil companies to sell 20% ethanol blended petrol from 1st April, 2023, and BIS specifications for ethanol blends E12 and E15.
- It is a community of plants and animals interacting with each other in a given area, and also with their non-living environments. The non-living environments include weather, earth, sun, soil, climate and atmosphere.
- The ecosystem relates to the way that all these different organisms live in close proximity to each other and how they interact with each other.
- Ecosystem restoration means assisting in the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, as well as conserving the ecosystems that are still intact.
- It involves reviving old water bodies, building natural forests, providing space to wildlife and reducing water pollution to restore aquatic life.
- Healthier ecosystems, with richer biodiversity, yield greater benefits such as more fertile soil, bigger yields of timber and fish, and larger stores of greenhouse gases.
Need of Restoration:
- Ecosystem loss is depriving the world of carbon sinks, like forests and wetlands, at a time when humanity can least afford it.
- Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown for three consecutive years and the planet is one place for potentially catastrophic climate change
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT