UNEP extends Dia Mirza's term as Goodwill Ambassador till 2022
The actres, who is also a United Nations Sustainability Development Goals Advocate, said she views the extension as an opportunity.
Dia, who is also a United Nations Sustainability Development Goals Advocate, said she views the extension as an opportunity to work towards championing nature.
"I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve as UNEP ambassador. My association with the United Nations Environment Programme has been an extraordinary learning curve. It has defined my purpose and I hope to continue to learn and make a difference towards improving environmental consciousness.
"Now more than ever before we need to make every effort possible to act on climate, protect wildlife, biodiversity, and secure our natural resources," the actor said in a statement.
The 'Kaafir' actor said being a Goodwill Ambassador for the UNEP has been an opportunity to have "meaningful conversations around nature and sustainability" with various stakeholders across India and the world.
"It has helped me understand the complexity of the issues at hand and the simplicity of the solutions," she added.
Dechen Tsering, Regional Director and Representative for Asia and the Pacific, UNEP said Dia's support a Goodwill Ambassador since 2017 has been "greatly valued."
"Your contributions to World Environment Day, #BeatPlasticPollution, Circular Fashion and other UNEP campaigns and initiatives have helped broaden the scope and impact of our outreach. We look to you to continue to assist us in our advocacy efforts and communicate to the public the vision and values that guide our work," Dechen said.
One of Dia's big campaigns during her first tenure as the ambassador was #BeatPlasticPollution that helped in highlighting the issue at the highest levels and led to a clarion call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India Single Use Plastics free by 2022, the statement read.
Tech for energy storage, smart metering, clean cooking, innovative EV solutions, battery technologies, energy monitoring systems and hydro turbine technologies are among the 15 winning start-ups announced and felicitated by Government of India, BIRAC, Tata Trusts, TATA Power and Social Alpha at a felicitation ceremony and innovation showcase of the Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0 (SAEC 2.0), last week. The winners were selected from more than 150 applicants across the country which were screened for their unique technology and business model, strong focus on affordability and accessibility and social, economic and environmental impact.
The selection for the winners of Social Alpha Energy Challenge 2.0 was made for two categories respectively - ‘pre-pilot’ and ‘post-pilot’, to address the needs of technologies and start-ups in different stages of product development. The pre-pilot category winners will be supported in their very early stage through handholding and mentorship for product development, including support in physical prototype development and testing. The post-pilot category start-ups are the ones that have crossed the proof of concept stage and have demonstrated a working prototype, and will be supported in the go-to-market execution.
The winners will be incubated by the Clean Energy International Incubation Centre (CEIIC). CEIIC, Social Alpha’s deep-tech Energy Innovation Lab, which is the joint initiative of the Government of India and Tata Trusts, supported by Department of Biotechnology, BIRAC, Tata Power and Tata Power-Delhi Distribution Limited. CEIIC will support entrepreneurs by providing industry and field connect critical for product development .
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
