The Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection, chaired by Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa, celebrates World Environment Day this Monday, June 5, 2023, as it does every year on the same date.
The Foundation is particularly committed to the fight against plastic pollution since it launched operation #b7arblaplastic in 2019. It considers this year’s topic a perfect opportunity to publicize ongoing initiatives and raise general public awareness of the issue.
The Foundation will host an environmental awareness booth at the International Book and Publishing Fair (SIEL) in Rabat on the first week of June. On June 5, World Environment Day, the Foundation will hold guided visits to the fair for 350 schoolchildren from four different regions. These young people will also attend workshops designed according to age group (sustainable development, storytelling, heritage, drawing, comics, etc.) to build environmental awareness.
The Foundation will also hold an international conference on “Solutions for Plastic Pollution” on World Environment Day, June 5, at the Hassan II International Center for Environmental Training near Rabat.
The event, to be attended by representatives from the Embassy of Côte d’Ivoire, the country currently presiding over World Environment Day, will be conducted by leading global experts and through a variety of practical workshops, will discuss ways for mobilizing citizens, governments, and businesses against this scourge, at a time when the international community, as a whole, is braced to, for the very first time, sign a binding International Treaty for the Elimination of Plastic Pollution to combat plastic pollution both on land and in the oceans, where the bulk of it often ends up.
To do so, a preliminary session detailing the situation on the ground is planned first, followed by a workshop on international environmental treaty negotiation, then a panel discussion on solutions to the plastic crisis, and finally a workshop on “innovation, entrepreneurship, and communication to combat the plastic crisis.”
Buoyed by this breakthrough, the United Nations has put forward its #BeatPlasticPollution campaign to promote plastic recycling in a circular economy. A circular economy the Foundation has advocated for in the past three years with the #b7arblaplastic awareness campaign, implemented annually as part of the Sea and Oceans cluster.
Held by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) since 1973, World Environment Day has become the leading global platform for raising public environmental awareness. It is celebrated by millions of people in countries all over the world.
World Environment Day highlights a different topic every year. In 2023, the fiftieth World Environment Day, hosted by Côte d’Ivoire with support from the Netherlands, focuses on plastic pollution and solutions to combat it. “Over 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced worldwide every year, half of which is designed for single use, and under 10% of the total is recycled,” according to the United Nations.