Priyanka Chopra Jonasis addressing the climate crisis.

“We meet today at a critical point in our world, at a time when global solidarity is more important than ever,” theUNICEFGoodwill Ambassador shared.

“As countries continue to struggle from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the climate crisis appends lives and livelihoods, as conflicts rage, and as poverty displacement, hunger and inequalities destroy the very foundation of the more just world that we have fought for for such a long time,” Chopra Jonas, 40, continued.

“We have that plan, the UN sustainable development goals — a to-do list for the world,” she explained. “These goals were created hand in hand with people around the world in 2015; together we have an extraordinary opportunity to change the world that we live in.”

“We owe it to our people, we owe it to our planet,” she said.

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Chopra Jonas has worked with UNICEF as a global Goodwill Ambassador for more than a decade, visiting places in need like Zimbabwe and India’s Mumbai slums.

After winning Miss World in 2000, she realized she could make a difference on a global scale.

“I realized I had a position of power, and I could associate myself with causes I really believed in,” theBaywatchstar toldPEOPLE in 2018.

Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for Bvlgari

Priyanka Chopra Jonas attends the BVLGARI EDEN THE GARDEN OF WONDERS

“The field trips are the most special, because you meet incredible kids and survivors,” Chopra Jonas shared at the time. “That has been one of my joyous moments, being able to help advocate children’s rights and children’s welfare around the world. That moved me so much in being able to go to places where these kids have no voice or no one listening to them, and actually shedding light on that.”

As a result, she felt more grateful for her own blessings.

“The one thing that has changed in me is, I do not take my my privileges for granted,” she told PEOPLE. “I do not take the fact that I live in a comfortable home, I have the ability to get an education, I have a job that I want to have, I’m living the life that I choose to live.”

source: people.com