ANROEV Statement on World Environment Day 2026

5 June 2026

On the occasion of World Environment Day 2026, the Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational and Environmental Victims (ANROEV) stand in solidarity with workers, frontline communities, social movements, and environmental justice advocates at region and  worldwide to demand urgent, people-centered climate action.

This year’s theme, “Inspired by Nature. For Climate. For Our Future,” serves as a stark reminder that humanity’s survival depends on restoring harmony between economic activity, environmental protection, and human dignity. 

Across Asia, millions of workers and communities are already bearing the brunt of a compounding crisis: climate change, rampant industrial pollution, unsafe workplaces, toxic exposure, and environmental degradation.

Workers are on the absolute frontline of this emergency. Escalating temperatures, extreme weather events, toxic air, hazardous chemicals, predatory extractive industries, and reckless waste management threaten the health, livelihoods, and lives of millions daily. Tragically, those least responsible for environmental destruction continue to suffer its gravest consequences.

ANROEV firmly asserts that climate action cannot succeed without environmental justice, robust occupational health and safety (OHS), and the fierce protection of workers’ rights. The global shift toward low-carbon economies must be a Just Transition—one that actively shields livelihoods, guarantees decent work, strengthens social safety nets, and ensures that workers and affected communities hold the pen when decisions are made.

We emphasize an uncompromisable truth: green jobs must be decent and safe jobs. Sustainable development cannot be built on the backs of exploited labor, toxic industries, or the sacrifice of vulnerable communities.

Our Call to Action

On this World Environment Day-2026, ANROEV calls upon governments, employers, corporations and international institutionsto take immediate, legally binding, and transformative action to:

• Enact a Truly Just Transition: Protect workers, affected communities, EOSH victims  and vulnerable populations from bearing the economic and social costs of industrial transformation.
• Acknowledge the Toll of Industrial Disease: Recognize occupational and environmental diseases including those caused by asbestos, toxic chemicals, air pollution, mining, shipbreaking, and e-waste as critical public health and human rights violations.
• Fortify Workplace Safety:  Strengthen OHS protections immediately, with specific mandates for workers exposed to extreme heat, pollution, toxic chemicals, and climate-induced risks.
• Democratic Participation: Guarantee the right of workers and communities to participate meaningfully in designing environmental and climate policies.
• End Corporate Impunity: Hold corporations and industries legally and financially accountable for environmental destruction, occupational diseases, and human rights abuses.
• Invest in Safe, Green Futures: Channel capital into clean, sustainable industries that generate dignified, safe employment while regenerating local ecosystems.
• Expand Comprehensive Social Protection: Universalize healthcare access, fair compensation systems, and robust rehabilitation support for occupational and environmental victims and their families.
• Champion Community and Nature-Based Solutions: Support localized, climate-resilient solutions that honor human rights, traditional knowledge, and ecological boundaries.
• Defend the Defenders: Guarantee the safety and freedom of environmental defenders, trade unions, and grassroots movements fighting for climate justice and safe workplaces.

A Shared Future

ANROEV reaffirms its unwavering solidarity with occupational and environmental victims across Asia and the globe. We remain fiercely committed to advancing environmental justice, corporate accountability, and a climate response that leaves no one behind.

A healthy planet and safe workplaces are fundamentally inseparable. To protect nature is to protect people.

For climate. For workers. For our shared future.

– Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational and Environmental Victims (ANROEV)