Politics, business and education and research together for Slovenia’s development. Top representatives of the Government, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the education and research sector signed an agreement on strategic cooperation for technological development and innovation breakthrough, “For a Smart, Sustainable and Competitive Slovenia. The main message was that the only way to achieve the country’s development was through knowledge and joint action.

The theme of this year’s Earth Day, which is celebrated on 22 April every year, is Invest in Our Planet, highlighting the importance that dedicating our time and resources to solving climate change and other environmental issues can have in the long-term care for our planet’s future.

Four days before Earth Day, Slovenia reached the Earth Overshoot Day for 2023, as by 18 April, the country had used all the resources and ecosystem services that the Earth can provide in one year.

According to the Global Footprint Network, the ecological footprint of a Slovenian citizen is 5.37 global hectares (gha), and the Earth has only 12.2 billion hectares of productive land (e.g. grasslands, pastures, arable land, fishing areas). The Institute for Health and Environment said this week that if all people in the world lived like Slovenians, we would need 3.4 planets the size of Earth to meet our needs for natural resources.