Kathmandu, June 5:

Local initiative and local solutions are basic requirements for meeting challenges created by environmental degradation, according to experts.

Experts today reviewed the current state of environment in an interaction organised by the Youth Network of Social and Environmental Development (YONSED) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to mark World Environment Day.

Secretary of the Ministry of Environment Science and Technology, Bal Krishna Prasai, said: “Climate change and global warming have hazardous effects on human beings; our future is at stake.”

“We must initiate plans to minimise environmental degradation,” he said.

Development activities are directly linked to environmental pollution, said Bijaya Singh, assistant resident representative of UNDP. Our daily activities are linked to environmental degradation and alternatives are to be sought in minimising pollution, Singh added.

“Life is not possible without a proper living environment and if we keep on following the current trend, we will one day make our earth uninhabitable,” said Dr Dinesh Raj Bhuju, executive director of Resources Himalaya.

Meanwhile, the Director-general of World Health Organisation Dr Margaret Chan today said the focus of World Environment Day this year is on the impact of climate change on the Polar regions, their ecosystems and communities, and its consequences.

“There is a close and complex relationship between health, health security and our changing environment. Limiting the impact of climate change is about saving lives and livelihoods, as much as it is about protecting the natural environment,” a press release issued here by the WHO quoted Dr Chan as saying.

Fete to mark day

LALITPUR: Lalitpur-sub Metropolitan City on Tuesday organised an environment fete at Patan Durbar Square to mark World Environment Day. Students from 16 schools participated in the fete and organised various activities on environment issues. In Kathmandu, the Himalaya International Model School (HIMS) marked the day by organising various activities like writing poems, essays, awareness programmes on environment and a cleaning campaign. Students, teachers and parents took part in the programme. — HNS