Clean Up the World is a not-for-profit, non-government, apolitical, founded in 1993, in Australia that brings together individuals, communities to work towards sanctuary of environment. It bestows people around the world, to bring about a wave of change, in their surrounding areas, through collective community actions, by organizing activities and programs. It is normally held on 3rd Saturday of September, every year.

Clean Up the World was founded by Ian Kiernan. He was yatchsman and was disturbed to see the garbage, in the ocean harming the acquatic beings and the environment. He organized Clean Up Sydney, along with his community members.

Clean up the world is one of the largest community-based environmental Campaigns, in the world with an estimate of 35 million volunteers, across 133 countries of the world. From individuals to NGOs, community groups, educational institutions and governments, join the campaign and carry its legacy by persistent collective efforts to create a positive and historic impacts. Its impact is reflected through, the number of projects, which is 49,205 in total. The campaign operates, across the world; in the regions of - Africa, Europe, West Asia, Asia Pacific, Latin America & the Caribbean and North America.

The activities, organized under the campaigns are :

• Rubbish Removal & Clean Up
• Tree Planting & Habitat Restoration
• Education & Awareness Raising
• Care of Marine Environments
• Waste & Resource Recovery
• Urban Recycling

Clean Up the World Campaign stands, on the principle to bring a positive change, to the respective community and environment and that the activities shouldn't harness the feelings of partisan or any kind of discrimination and must not harm someone's sentiments, cultural or religious beliefs and that it is entirely volunteering.

IISD-CMI is very actively participating, UNEP's Clean Up the World Campaign, since September 2007, along with it's parterning Civil Society Organisations, Universities and Educational Institutions, Industry Partners, Municipality Corporations, affiliated Embassy and Diplomatic Missions, present in India.

UNEP's Clean the Seas Campaign-
97% of the World's water is bestowed upon Oceans and not only this, Oceans provide the human lives with the gift of providing 50% of oxygen and absorb 50 times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere and cover 71% of the Earth's surface.

And the rate at which, our activities and personal interests & lifestyle standards, are asphyxiating the oceans, with abundance of non-degradable, harmful matter, causing death like condition, for acquatic beings, perhaps the time is near when, we will run out of our valuable resource and the benefits it is bringing to our lives, to enrich our existence.

Here are some numbers, which are uncomfortable enough to make us ponder, over our activities- Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastics, are dumped into Oceans, out of which, 236,000 tons are microplastics. These micro plastics are life threating to marine animals, because they often cannot determine the difference between them and food and ingest them, then cannot digest them and eventually it leads up to their death. And the problem is not just confined to oceans, the non-degradable waste is stocked up in thousand of beaches.

The purpose of UNEP's Clean the Seas Campaign is exactly to have a situation, opposite to it therefore to protect our green planet, with active involvement of communities, businesses and governments all over the world, since its inception in 2017.

Plastic pollution is killing our oceans. An average of 8 million tonnes of plastic waste enters, our oceans annually and the ubiquity of plastic traces poses, a serious threat to ocean and human health. Fifty percent of the oxygen, we breathe, comes from the oceans. Up to 80 percent of all pollution, in the oceans, including all micro plastic, comes from the land; which we must control and regulate ourselfs, for our own existence. The Watamu Marine Association is working in this direction and hence it is a part of the Global Partnership on Marine Litter, which is supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

UNEP's Clean the Sees Campaign, was launched in Indonesia in February, 2017. In an statement, UNEP Executive Director Shri Eric Solheim, expressed that Clean the Sees Campaign, is inspired by beach clean ups in Mumbai, Versona beech to be particular, which was kept plastic free for over an year. It drew world's attention as Shri Afroz Shah, a City Lawyer, through his efforts and removed 4.9 million kgs of trash from Versona beech. UNEP also appreciated it by calling it World's Largest Beech Clean Up in history.

India's Prime Minister- Narendra Modi launched massive waste management drive on World Environment Day, on June 5, 2017. He urged Indians to "connect with nature" and urged Indians to realise the importance of nature for our existence and growth. Under the venture, colour-coded garbage bins, were installed in 4,000 towns, across the country to stimulate people, to separate waste and ensure that it could be recycled better. He encouraged, people to look up the waste as wealth and as people do it, they would find news ways, to manage it effectively, as major proportion of waste flows into oceans.

Under UNEP's Clean Up the World Campaign, India made a commitment on June 5, 2018 to eliminate all single-use plastic, in the country by 2022; foregrounding the point that India's economic development can encompass sustainable development, also along with it. Consolidating this strong move, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Former Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change pledged to achieve this goal and announced that single use plastics would be banned in all states of India by 2022. Shri Erik Solheim, UNEP's Executive Director, appreciated India's remarkable step, towards sustainability, mentioning that it will bring a wave of change in the world.

IISD-CMI is very actively participating, UNEP's Clean Seas - turn the tide on Plastic Campaign, since June 5th 2018, along with it's parterning Civil Society Organisations, Universities and Educational Institutions, Industry Partners, Municipality Corporations, affiliated Embassys and Diplomatic Missions, present in India.