The United Nations today announced a campaign to encourage young people to step up their actions to address climate change and ensure a sustainable and happier future for all.

The campaign is launched in partnership with the Angry Birds – the globally renowned mobile game characters – to make a direct link between tackling climate change and people’s happiness and well-being on the occasion of the International Day of Happiness.

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“The Angry Birds have entertained millions of people around the world – and now they are part of making the world a better place,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who appointed Red of the Angry Birds as an Honorary Ambassador for Green at a launch event at UN Headquarters in New York.

“We are proud to give Red a reason to go Green. There is no better way to mark the International Day of Happiness than to have our animated ambassador raise awareness about the importance of addressing climate change to create a safer, more sustainable and happier future for all,” Mr. Ban said.

The campaign, in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, the UN Development Programme and UN Foundation, asks the general public across the world to make the Angry Birds happy by taking actions on climate change and sharing their photos and commitments on social media platforms using the common hashtag #AngryBirdsHappyPlanet. By recycling, taking public transportation and conserving water, for example, individuals can share tips on how they can live sustainably and happily in their everyday lives.

As part of his ambassadorial duties, Red will go on a “virtual world tour” starting on 21 March, highlighting various ways to take climate action. His tour will take him to Paris, where countries adopted an historic agreement to address climate change in December, and will end in New York, where world leaders will sign the Paris Agreement at UN Headquarters on 22 April.

During the launch event, the voice actors from the upcoming Angry Bird movie, Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, and Maya Rudolph, and producers John Cohen and Catherine Winder gave hundreds of students gathered in the iconic UN General Assembly Hall a sneak preview of the #AngryBirdsHappyPlanet campaign materials, including public service announcements created to support the campaign. They also asked the young audience for their support to the campaign by doing their part to make a difference on climate change.

Last December, 195 countries reached an unprecedented agreement on climate change. Now that three months have passed since this victory, parties are faced with another, perhaps greater challenge: ensuring the implementation of the pledges made at the summit, now that the media spotlight and public attention has moved to other issues.

Bottom up initiatives will be crucial to achieving the goals set by each party, as climate change is a global challenge with local roots. Global youth have become a key actor at the local level, inspiring communities around the world to adopt environmentally friendly ways of living. All over the world, youth initiatives have grown, driven by determined young people eager to support climate action and have their say in COP negotiations.

This eagerness to impact change and be involved in deciding the future of our planet inspired Fannie Delavelle to set up an initiative aimed at bringing the voice of the global youth to the climate negotiations.

Young people from all around the world were invited to send her questions about climate change. She got lots of replies from every corner of the world: from Ethiopia to China, from Peru to Bulgaria, from the US to Australia, young professionals responded enthusiastically.

During the second week of COP21 in Paris, she asked high-level participants such as Rachel Kyte - CEO of Sustainable Energy for All and former Vice President of the World Bank- to answer their questions. 

13th Annual Global Green Pre-Oscar Party to honor World Bank Group's Global Partnership program - Connect4Climate, UN Foundation & Global Green Champions

Global Green will roll out the green carpet for the eco-conscious stars and allies at its 13th annual pre-Oscar party on Feb. 24 at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel that will feature an opening act by Charlie Puth, special headlining performance by Stevie Wonder and dinner program emceed by renowned journalist Soledad O’Brien. The event will recognize the World Bank’s Connect4Climate initiative, as well as the UN Foundation and Global Green Champions who include elementary and middle school student gardeners who will help launch a global educational curriculum through a partnership with the MUSE School.

The World Bank Group’s global partnership program, Connect4Climate, will be awarded for public outreach, youth engagement and advocacy work that it has been doing to advance environmental and climate change education, and to find innovative ways to take climate change concerns to a wider public, especially by working with the creative industries to maximize exposure of the issues at stake and encourage the acceleration of solutions. 

“We are so pleased to recognize the extraordinary impact of Connect4climate,” said Global Green CEO, Dr. Les McCabe. “It’s especially appropriate to acknowledge the World Bank during Oscar week because of their successful engagement of the film community. Their Action4Climate competition enabled more than 260 young filmmakers from 70 countries to present their local stories to a global audience, and they brought together over 170 Film Commissions and other film industry organizations to pave the way for an international ‘greening of the silver screen’ through the work of their ongoing Film4Climate initiative.”

Lucia Grenna, Program Manager of Connect4Climate, who will accept the award, notes, “my organization is dedicated to ending poverty. But, as World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has said many times, we will never end poverty if we don’t tackle climate change, in part because climate change hits the poorest the hardest. Celebrities and the creative industries, including the film industry, can all make a difference in raising awareness for climate action and motivating lower carbon lifestyle changes.  We need a global movement for climate change: everyone’s action counts and it is everybody’s business.”

This article was originally published here.

As FOX's iconic sci-fi series The X-Files returned to television in January 2016, the cast and creative team worked to ensure that the show remained as timely and ambitious as ever. The new six-episode event reunited David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, and continued to enrich its mythology, introducing new characters and conspiracies at every turn. Yet, even as the series built on its own fictional history, it also built on its legacy behind the scenes, including its long-running commitment to environmental sustainability.

The previous entry in the franchise, the 2008 feature The X-Files: I Want to Believe, was one of the first films to go into production following the launch of 21st Century Fox's corporate sustainability program in 2007, and it was among the first to implement the green production practices that Fox helped pioneer, such as prioritizing alternative fuels and recycling materials used on set.

"When I first started working in the business, we would just take sets and throw them away," said series creator Chris Carter in an interview on green production for the movie's DVD release. "That's changing. There is a new directive, and I think Fox is at the forefront of that directive, using recycled materials whenever possible, recycling what you do use, and looking at it as a total approach. I was very excited about that."

The film's green efforts behind the scenes helped define best practices for the entire industry, so when the Fox Television Group gave Carter the chance to revisit The X-Files once more, he and the crew picked up where they left off, integrating sustainability into every department's daily operations.

However, the new series was not without its challenges. It filmed across 40 individual locations in British Columbia, with each requiring elaborate set construction, lengthy transportation demands, and long shooting hours calling for sustained electricity and fuel use. To mitigate these challenges, Fox brought on a dedicated green production consultant to work with each department, including set construction, transportation, wardrobe, props, catering, hair & make-up, and more, to find ways to make the production as efficient as possible.

Thanks to these efforts, the production managed to divert more than 81% of its total waste from landfill, recycle 100% of the aluminum and steel used in set construction, use only lauan plywood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), replace plastic water bottles with refillable ones, avoiding the use of 45,760 plastic bottles, and recycle more than 35 tons of "dirty" EPS foam used for set construction, breaking new ground for the entire industry.

For more information on green production behind the scenes of The X-Files, read our detailed case study and check out the exclusive video below published on 21st Century Fox Social Impact.

The X-Files airs Mondays on FOX at 8:00 PM EST/PST.

This article was originally published here: https://impact.21cf.com/what/2016/02/x-files-green-production.html