Dia Mirza attends the sixth session of UNEA-6: If we don’t start saving the environment now, it will be too late

On February 27, actor-producer Dia Mirza attended the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) world’s highest – level decision making body on the environment in Nairobi.

She was present at an afforestation engagement at their urban lung space in Karura Forest. With an initiative to realise the dream of 500 million trees by 2032, Mirza, who is also the Goodwill Ambassador for UNEP and the UN Secretary General’s Advocate for SDG, tells us, “As an environmentalist, most of the year recently has gone by observing the alarming and harsh realities of the environment everyday,” adding, “Attending the UNEA is by far one of the most hope inspiring combinations of people. Most of the attendees are people who really care about the environment. The most exciting thing for me was the World Restoration Flagship, which were the awards given to countries who were taking initiative to improve the health of the environment.”

Sharing quick anecdotes from her time there, the Dhak Dhak actor elaborates, “Another really interesting and great opportunity was interacting and engaging with young changemakers. Some of them I have known now for 7-8 years, while some young people were there for the first time. In fact, there was a young girl who had planted 46,000 trees single handedly.”

“It’s a combination of engaging with passionate people who really care about bringing a change and also seeing the world coming together to fight for what’s right. It is the first global platform where I saw so many women in leadership places. I also spent time with fellow ambassadors from other parts of the world. We need to start planting trees, avoid pollution, and take steps on the ground level,” she further adds.

Mirza feels that it is high time that people spread awareness and start working rigorously to save planet Earth. “If we don’t start acting now and take the initiatives that we need to take, it will be too late. We need to make peace with each other to save our environment. We need world peace. When countries are at war with each other, it can have a significant impact on nature as well. My two and a half year old son goes to school and 90 percent of his classmates have breathing issues, it’s scary,” the 42-year-old expresses.

Mirza also talks about how she tries to play a role in improving the situation through social media and how it’s the individual behaviour of high net worth people that matters a lot. “Individual behaviour and change takes time, but that is the most important thing. When a public figure adopts a sustainable lifestyle and promotes it, it widens the reach of understanding and more people will be inspired to change,” she continues, “Behavioural change is extremely important.

If the high net worth individuals were to genuinely change the way they live, travel, and behave in the running economy, a lot would change, people would be inspired. Have a travelling bottle while going anywhere or have started segregating their waste, and many other things that they can do.”

“For us, as advocates, social media is an amazing way to create an impact. There’s a much wider reach, even people who are not necessarily famous, have a platform to advocate because of social media. Even I follow so many incredible women who are vocal about saving the environment and share so many knowledgeable things,” concludes the actor.