Baku, 27 June 2024 – The Republic of Azerbaijan will host World Environment Day 2026, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Republic of Azerbaijan announced today in the capital, Baku, during an official visit by the Executive Director of UNEP, Inger Andersen.

World Environment Day, which Baku will host on 5 June 2026, is the largest global platform for environmental engagement and action. Established by the UN General Assembly in 1972, the Day inspires and is celebrated by millions of people across the world, who participate in online and in-person activities and events around the world aimed at accelerating environmental progress for people and planet. With Azerbaijan as hosts, World Environment Day 2026 will focus on climate change.

“Like almost every corner of the Earth, Azerbaijan is facing devastating impacts of climate change and environmental degradation. To fend off these challenges, World Environment Day fills the world with millions of reasons for hope,” said Mukhtar Babayev, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan and COP29 President-Designate. Azerbaijan is set to host a landmark UN Climate Change Conference in November, almost double our renewable energy sources by 2030, grow forests, and reach zero-waste through state-of the-art facilities. Hosting World Environment Day is a natural choice, grounded in our solidarity for a green world.”

Recent years have seen nations working closer than ever to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution and waste. The UN Climate Change Conference COP28 saw countries agree to new commitments on renewable energy, efficiency, and methane amongst others, as well as signal the end of the fossil fuel era. The UN Biodiversity Conference COP15, in 2022, ended with the landmark Global Biodiversity Framework, which is now being implemented to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030, and the world adopted a historic treaty to protect life in the high seas. “Governments, businesses, civil society and people across the world are calling for change – from ending the fossil fuel era, to restoring degraded nature, reducing pollution and demanding the right to a healthy environment,” said Ms. Andersen. “World Environment Day is the platform to bring global action together and I look forward to working with the Republic of Azerbaijan to drive progress on the climate crisis through World Environment Day 2026.”

By the end of this year, critical progress on climate finance is expected at COP29, along with countermeasures on desertification at the Convention to Combat Desertification COP16 and three years of international negotiations are expected to culminate in a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution.

Next year, World Environment Day will be hosted by the Republic of Korea with a focus on ending plastic pollution. World Environment Day 2024 was hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a focus on land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience.