Ayisha Siddiqa (born 8 February 1999) is an American

climate justice Climate justice is a type of environmental justice that focuses on the unequal impacts of climate change on marginalized or otherwise vulnerable populations. Climate justice seeks to achieve an equitable distribution of both the burdens of clima ...

advocate. She is a co-founder of Fossil Free University and Polluters Out.

Early life and education

Siddiqa was born on 8 February 1999. She was born in Jhang,

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, which is located near the

Chenab River The Chenab River is a major river in India and Pakistan, and is one of the 5 major rivers of the Punjab region. It is formed by the union of two headwaters, the Chandra and Bhaga, which rise in the upper Himalayas in the Lahaul region of Hima ...

, and lived on her grandparents' farm around there as a young child. Siddiqa moved to

Coney Island Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

when she was a child. She graduated from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

and received a

Bachelor of arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

Political Sciences Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

and English in 2021. While at Hunter College, she was part of the Thomas Hunter Honors program.

Career

Siddiqa worked at the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...

as part of the Edward T. Rogowsky Internship program in 2019. From 2021 to 2022, she was a fellow at the Coro New York Leadership Center. She has also been a law fellow at

Munger, Tolles & Olson Munger, Tolles, & Olson LLP (MTO) is an American law firm founded in 1962 with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. The firm is known for handling litigation and corporate matters across multiple industries, including entert ...

. She continues her work as a climate justice advocate while also serving as a fellow at the Climate Litigation Accelerator (CLX), which is part of Earth Rights Advocacy at

NYU Law The New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it was the first law school established in New York City and is the oldest surviving ...

Activism

Siddiqa first became involved in climate activism when she launched her university's branch of

extinction rebellion Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a UK-founded global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and ...

in May 2019. The organization held a strike on 7 October 2019 in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

, New York City. The strike included about 300,000 participants. As part of that protest, strikers doused fake blood on the ''

Charging Bull ''Charging Bull'' (sometimes referred to as the ''Bull of Wall Street'' or the ''Bowling Green Bull'') is a bronze sculpture that stands on Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway just north of Bowling Green (New York City), Bowling Green in the Financ ...

'', located on

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

. In response to the

2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP25, was the 25th United Nations Climate Change conference. It was held in Madrid, Spain, from 2 to 13 December 2019 under the presidency of the Chilean government. The conferen ...

, she founded Polluters Out with Isabella Fallahi and Helena Gualinga. The organization was created in response to the realization that fossil fuel industries play a big role in the COPs. Fossil fuel companies who fund the COPs include

Endesa Endesa, S.A. (, originally an initialism for ''Empresa Nacional de Electricidad, S.A''.) is a Spanish multinational electric utility company, the largest in the country. The firm, a majority-owned subsidiary of the Italian utility company Enel, ...

Iberdrola Iberdrola, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational electric utility company based in Bilbao, Spain. It has around 40,000 employees and serves around 30 million customers. Subsidiary, Subsidiaries include ScottishPower (United Kingdom), Ava ...

Banco Santander Banco Santander S.A. trading as Santander Group ( , , ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Santander, with operative offices in Madrid. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in most global financial centres ...

and

Acciona Acciona, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational conglomerate dedicated to the development and management of infrastructure (construction, water, industrial and services) and renewable energy. The company, via subsidiary Acciona Energía, produces 21 ...

. As a result of this campaign, COP26 didn't include big oil companies as sponsors.

British Petroleum BP p.l.c. (formerly The British Petroleum Company p.l.c. and BP Amoco p.l.c.; stylised in all lowercase) is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is one of the oil and gas " supermajors" and one of ...

was one such oil company denied sponsorship. Ayisha Siddiqa also joined the walkout at the TED Countdown Conference, which happened in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

in response to the speaker role given to

Shell plc Shell plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational petroleum, oil and natural gas, gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and second ...

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

, Ben van Beurden, and other fossil fuel executives. She is also the co-founder of Free Fossil University. Siddiqa also attended the

2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, was the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, coun ...

in November 2021, where she critiqued the inaccessibility of the COP, especially for people from the

Global South Global North and Global South are terms that denote a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics and politics. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South broadly com ...

. In 2022, she was a very active participant in the youth delegation to the COP27 in Egypt. In March 2023, she was named as one of ''Time'' magazine's Women of the Year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siddiqa, Ayisha Living people 1999 births Youth climate activists American climate activists American people of Pakistani descent American women environmentalists People from Coney Island Hunter College alumni People from Jhang District