Media Release
EDINBURGH, Scotland, 26 September 2025 -- today, UNA Scotland announced the launch of the UNAS Earth Ambassadors, a group of seven climate activists and campaigners from around the world: Mohamed Bachir Camara (Guinea), Souksaveuy Keotiamchanh (Laos), Tanmay Nag (India), Maria Nordvall (Sweden), Erfan Rashidi (Iran), Janet Reddy (Fiji), and Laura Young (Scotland).
The Earth Ambassadors programme creates a valuable opportunity for fostering partnerships and collaboration between climate activists, while also providing a much needed space for meaningful engagement.
The UNAS Earth Ambassadors initiative started with the Beyond COP series, a collaborative project developed by UN House Scotland, UNA-USA and UNA Scotland. The aim of the series was to invite climate activists and researchers involved with the annual UNFCCC COP to meet and find opportunities and synchronicities for project proposals. To facilitate this, events were organised after each year’s COP (Glasgow 2021; Sharm-El-Sheikh 2022; Dubai 2023). Participants discussed how individuals and organisations could support impactful and community-based implementations of COP outcomes, while increasing their knowledge of environmental issues. A report was also published after every event, and these are available at unhscotland.org.uk/.
The most recent Beyond COP event took place in February 2024, and featured youth climate activists from across the world. They highlighted the impact of the climate crisis on their own local communities and shared their efforts to find and implement solutions.
Following this event, an idea for the Earth Ambassadors initiative was sparked by conversations with the UNAS Earth Ambassador for Iran, Erfan Rashidi. It was decided to invite all the youth climate activists who spoke at the event to become the first seven UNAS Earth Ambassadors to encourage further collaboration. Through the UNAS Earth Ambassadors programme, the work of the Ambassadors will be promoted through the networks of UNHS and UNAS, with various projects resulting from their engagement.
A one-year anniversary event is planned for September 2025 in which the seven Ambassadors will travel to Edinburgh to attend a five-day engagement programme with Parliamentarians, students and civil society, including representatives of environmental and climate organisations.
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Contact: beyond.cop@unascotland.org.uk
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