Founding of United Nations Environment Programme

The United Nations Environment Programme, known as UNEP, was established in 1972 following the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in June of that year, the first major international gathering on environmental issues. The General Assembly set it up to coordinate the environmental work of the UN system and to encourage action on problems such as pollution, loss of biodiversity and climate change. Its headquarters is in Nairobi, Kenya, the first UN agency headquartered in the developing world, and its first executive director was the Canadian Maurice Strong. UNEP has helped to bring about agreements including the Montreal Protocol on the ozone layer and has supported scientific assessments such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. World Environment Day, celebrated on 5 June, is one of its best-known campaigns.

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