British singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding has been appointed as the Global Goodwill Ambassador for UN Environment.
- With this announcement, she will be joining the fight to save the lives and habitats of people and animals by cleaning up the planet's air and seas, fighting climate change and protecting species.
- UN Goodwill Ambassadors use their fame to deliver their urgent and universal message.
- Overall, environmental degradation causes nearly one in four of all deaths worldwide, or 12.6 million people a year, and the widespread destruction of ecosystems.
- Air pollution, which is the single biggest environmental killer, claims 6.5 million lives each year.
Breathe Life
- UN Environment's global campaign, Breathe Life, is tackling air quality; over 100 cities and four countries are expected to join during the meeting with the goal of creating clean air in cities by 2030.
- Ellie is also backing UN Environment's Clean Seas campaign.
- Each year, at least eight million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans - the equivalent of one dumper truck a minute - harming marine species and getting into the human food chain, with plastic now found in salt and shellfish.
- Already, 37 governments have joined the Clean Seas campaign, with Britain, the EU, France, Indonesia, Kenya and Canada all on board.
- The UN Environment Assembly will see further action on this issue, with new commitments for national and regional plans to monitor the amount of plastic going into the sea and plans to start cutting this pollution in the coming years.
