In response to World Environment Day and World Oceans Day, together with more than 150 countries around the world, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has coordinated with the People's Committee of Nghe An province to organize the national launching ceremony of Sea and Islands Week. Vietnam, Environmental Action Month in response to World Environment Day (June 5), World Oceans Day (June 6).
World Environment Day June 5, 6 was launched by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) with the theme "Solutions to plastic pollution", which focuses on implementing the campaign "Fighting plastic pollution".
The launching ceremony of "World Oceans Day and World Environment Day" is organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to propagate and create practical actions that are pervasive to raise public awareness along with people's activities to protect natural resources and environment of sea and islands.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh said that "solution to plastic pollution" with the focus on implementing the campaign "Fighting plastic pollution" continues to be selected as the theme. of World Environment Day 2023.
This message along with the theme "Ocean Planet: Changing Tides" of World Oceans Day has strongly conveyed the message of building a sustainable lifestyle in harmony with nature; emphasize the role of the ocean, human life depends on the ocean; Humanity needs to join hands to protect the ocean as well as our entire blue planet.
The Minister emphasized that World Environment Day and World Oceans Day 2023 are an opportunity to affirm determination, change awareness, unify actions, proactively overcome difficulties and challenges posed, prevent the increase in the rate of pollution and environmental degradation, exploit and sustainably use marine and island resources, and ensure ecological balance; gradually replace the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags by using environmentally friendly products in daily life, contributing to environmental protection for the goal of sustainable development of the country.
“We are facing many challenges when the problem of white pollution is closely related to economic development and social stability. Along with about 50% of the country's population living in lowland and coastal areas, Vietnam is considered as one of the vulnerable countries and suffers from many negative impacts of climate change, environmental pollution, and sea level rise.
That poses many challenges to the implementation of the country's hunger eradication and poverty reduction, millennium development and sustainable development goals, requiring us to have practical and timely response solutions," the Minister emphasized.
Over the past time, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has actively and actively advised the Party and State to promulgate many important undertakings and policies on resource management, environmental protection, response to climate change and sustainable development of the marine economy.
Thereby, gradually raising public awareness about the harmful effects of products derived from plastic, single-use plastic bags to the environment, ecosystems and human health; encourage the production of environmentally friendly products to replace traditional plastic products, which are deployed synchronously across the country; Many movements to prevent and combat plastic waste were launched, attracting the participation of a large number of people.
However, the environmental protection and management of marine and island resources of Vietnam are still facing many difficulties and challenges. The marine environment shows signs of being polluted; Natural resources and biodiversity continue to decline, exploitation and use of sea and island resources is still inefficient and unsustainable.
People's awareness about the exploitation and use of resources is not high, the consumption habit of using single-use plastic products has been putting great pressure on the management and protection of the environment.
Accompanying the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment at this launching ceremony, Unilever Vietnam has officially launched the campaign to plant trees to cause forests and regenerate nature in 2023 with the goal of planting 250.000 more trees, bringing the total number of trees planted to 630.000 trees.
Pioneering in Vietnam in the initiative to build a circular economy in plastic waste management through the public-private partnership (PPC) model, Unilever has joined the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and other partners to help separate at source and collect and recycle plastic waste. Since 2020, Unilever's cooperation projects have collected more than 20.000 tons of plastic waste and created favorable conditions for plastic recycling activities in Vietnam.
Since 2021, Unilever has actively coordinated with the Center for Communication of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to implement the tree planting program "For a green Vietnam" with the goal of 1 million trees by 2025.
To date, 380.000 trees and 60.000 seed balls have been planted in 19 provinces and 9 national parks, reaching and inspiring more than 500.000 young people. This is also an activity that contributes to the regeneration of nature, creating a positive carbon source to help solve climate change in Vietnam./.
