Roundup: UN, Italian authorities call for cooperation on environmental protection

All countries and citizens need to contribute to the world's environmental protection, United Nations (UN) and Italian authorities said on Thursday ahead of the World Environmental Day (WED) official opening here.

This year the global host for the World Environment Day, the UN principal vehicle to encourage worldwide action for the environment, is Italy. Celebrations will take place at the nutrition-themed Expo Milano 2015, the current edition of the quinquennial world exhibition, in Milan.

"In just 150 years of industrialization, population growth and consumption, we have managed to change the fundamental life support systems on this planet," UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner told Xinhua on the sidelines of a press conference at Expo Milano 2015.

"Environment issues are not a local problem of a landfill or a polluted wetland. We have changed the atmosphere with pollution, more than half of the major fisheries today in the world's oceans are over exploited, we have destroyed wetlands and agriculture land, we are deforesting," he noted.

Steiner highlighted that "China's leadership has begun to articulate a vision of ecological civilization." In many respects, he told Xinhua, the environment issue both in terms of resources and climate systems is "a perfect illustration of China's notion that we are all connected."

Chinese leaders have repeatedly conveyed the message that the world is actually developing into a "community of common destiny," reflecting China's wish to build a better world together with other countries.

"The environmental sustainability challenge is giving a very clear expression today that this idea is more needed that ever before and every country has the capacity and also responsibility to do things ... it is around the table working together that we are most likely to succeed," Steiner pointed out.

He explained to Xinhua that UNEP has a very strong partnership with China. "We work together on science in order to identify priorities but also on policies, for example green development, the green economy and the emerging concept of ecological civilization," he said.

"In fact we believe that whatever China decides to do in terms of sustainable development and environmental protection in the next 20 years is not only relevant to China but also to rest of the global community," Steiner stressed.

The Italian Minister of Environment Gian Luca Galletti told Xinhua that the clear need for each country and citizen of the world to cooperate for the common environmental challenge reflects China's vision of the common destiny for human beings.

"Scientific data clearly tell us that if we continue with the lifestyle and the production patterns that we have adopted until now, this planet has no future. And if changes are not carried out all together, they do not serve useful purpose," he underlined.

"Focusing on the environment means curing the planet ... the fact that one part of the world is wasting food and another is going hungry shows that we need to change our development model and opt for sustainability, starting from youths," he told Xinhua.

This year's WED theme of "Seven billion dreams. One planet. Consume with care" is complementary with the Expo theme of "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" in encouraging people to rethink their lifestyle through conscious consumer decisions, Galletti said. Endit