Led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and held annually on 5 June since 1973, World Environment Day is the largest global platform for environmental public outreach and is celebrated by millions of people across the world. In 2022, it is hosted by Sweden.

For this year, “Only One Earth" is the campaign slogan, with the focus on “Living Sustainably in Harmony with Nature”. World Environment Day 2022 is re-energising the slogan to emphasise that planet Earth is still the only livable planet, pushing for transformative actions to reset the balance between people and the natural world to create a better future for all.

Scientifically, climate change has already been proven, with the average temperature of the planet rising by 1.18 degrees Celsius since the late 19th century, while ice sheets throughout Antarctica have retreated, the continent losing approximately 148 billion tons of ice per year.

The International Handball Federation (IHF) rallies to the values promoted by the World Environment Day, which promotes making sustainable living the default option, trying to raise awareness.

Joining the fight against climate change and tackling the issue with concrete measures, the IHF took a closer look at the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals to examine how it can contribute to a different future.

Through several goals underlined in the new IHF Four-Year Plan 2021-2025, the IHF backed the UN Sustainable Development Goal #13 – climate action – reducing the carbon footprint by, amongst others, travelling less and choosing the mode of transport carefully, increasing virtual activities and planting trees and forests.

Moreover, it is planned that future hosts of events organised by the IHF must include a sustainability project in their bids, as a thorough analysis on how the IHF can contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals was launched.

Handball has also made strides over the last years, with one of the projects that saw the biggest exposure being the “Zone Verte” launched in France, which has pinpointed several objectives, one of which is to stop the use of plastic throughout the French League by 2022. 

ihf.info reached out to players around the world to invite them to join the cause, with 12 countries and three continents represented among those joining the campaign. France men’s national team player and Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Kentin Mahé, summarised the situation:

"Only one earth – this expresses pretty much and pretty good the obligation that we have nowadays to raise awareness of the fact that we really just have one earth. There is no ‘Planet B’, as they used to say. 

“The biggest threat or the biggest mission that we have at the moment is I think to put in people’s minds that the world that we want to have for our children tomorrow needs to change, because of environmental catastrophes that we have seen in the past decades, which are increasing with global warming, and because of the rise of the CO2 and greenhouse gases, the emissions – one of the main reasons why the planet, the oceans, are becoming warmer. 

“I think the main mission is to raise awareness about this so that maybe one day, in the next few years, political power will take action and will see this as the biggest mission of our lifetime to ensure our children a better future on earth, which is stronger and healthier.”