New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS) India will host the World Environment Day 2018, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan and United Nations Environment Program chief Erik Solheim said on Monday.The theme for the World Environment Day-2018, held every year on June 5, is "Beat Plastic Pollution". Canada hosted the event in 2017.Calling the announcement the "beginning of the end of plastic", Harsh Vardhan said the ministry will take the lead in discouraging the use of plastic."For India, World Environment Day 2018 is not a symbolic celebration but a mission," the Minister said, adding that environmental issues are not merely technical but real moral issues.Voicing concern over the oceans being polluted due to plastic, Erik Solheim said that plastic pollution is a huge environment and health issue."When big plastics degrade into small pieces, it gets into the ocean. Small plastic particles are eaten by fish. We eat fish and the plastic gets into our body. So plastic pollution is a huge environment and health issue," Erik Solheim said.Meanwhile, Harsh Vardhan also launched the first electric charging facility at the Lodhi Road UN office -- the first ever in a UN office in India . --IANSkd/pgh/bg
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