Dia Mirza successfully completes three years as a UN Sustainable Development Goals advocate. By Team Viva

The actor, producer, and champion for nature, Dia Mirza, has completed three years as a UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) advocate. In her three-year tenure, she has been the face of many crucial environmental campaigns across the country. As a goodwill ambassador, she has tirelessly worked to spread the message on priority areas, including climate change, single-use plastics, clean air, oceans, and wildlife conservation.

This year, Nobel laureate and fellow Indian, Kailash Satyarthi, joined her as a SDG advocate. During a virtual meeting convened by the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, for all SDG advocates, Dia noted, “I am especially proud to welcome Kailash Satyarthi to the cohort of SDG advocates. We have become stronger with your gracious acceptance to join this global movement. We will work to provide the final push for the SDGs and the beginning of a long and hopeful recovery from the worst impacts of the pandemic.”

“A global shock like Covid not only creates risks, but also exposes pre-existing fractures of our societies. So, 120 million more people will be pushed into poverty, around 225 million jobs have been lost, school closures have meant that many children will not receive quality learning, not just because of the virus, but because we went into this pandemic with four billion of the world’s population without any social protection, with a deep digital divide, and with egregious inequalities.  The virus showed us that the three priorities, namely, climate action, gender equality, and reducing inequalities, are interconnected agendas, and none can be achieved without the other two,” the actor added.

She underlined how inequalities divide the world between those who can afford to shelter from the virus, wash their hands at home, and the billions who don’t have access to quality sanitation. She also pointed out that such inequalities will also determine who will immediately lose livelihoods and homes to an extreme weather event and who can survive a little longer. Even outside this pandemic, she said, natural disasters force 26 million people into poverty each year and claim millions of lives, particularly of women.

She expressed, “Around 50-70 per cent of healthcare and frontline workers are women across the countries, and they are also the first to be impacted by global shocks like pandemics and climate change.”

Dia emphasised that climate action must be primarily about people and their relationship with nature, and added, “We must keep our focus on those most vulnerable and ensure that renewable energy and water conservation efforts better the lives of the poorest.”

The SDG advocate also highlighted the importance of mainstreaming the green economy through multi-stakeholder approaches, especially when nature and its services contribute to half of the world’s GDP.

She said, “We must recognise that rainforests are our lungs and coastlines are our livelihoods. Development cannot just be GDP,  it must mean natural capital, and climate action cannot merely be implemented in conference rooms; it must become the main conversation in the next ten years. We must encourage sustainable lifestyles, green school curriculums, and social media campaigns for the science of climate change in the face of disinformation.”

With the help of her Instagram campaign ‘Down to Earth with Dee,’ and various far-reaching activities, Dia has been trying to advocate a more mindful, sustainable lifestyle, along with other SDG advocates from around the world, and young climate champions everywhere, she would be able to help build a green new normal for all.