Nicole "Nicki" Becker (

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

) is a climate activist from Argentina and one of the founders of Jóvenes por el Clima, part of the

Fridays for Future Fridays for Future (FFF), also known as the School Strike for Climate ( ), is an international movement of school students who skip Friday classes to participate in demonstrations to demand climate change mitigation, action from political le ...

movement. Becker became the youth champion for Escazu Agreement and

Sanitation and Water for All The Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) is a global partnership committed to achieving universal access to clean drinking water and adequate sanitation. In 2015, 2.4 billion people lacked access to improved sanitation, 946 million people defecat ...

(SWA) in 2021.

Background and education

Becker is the daughter of a father who is a

criminal lawyer A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various j ...

and a mother who is a math teacher and lives in

Caballito Caballito (; Spanish for "little horse") is a ''barrio'' (neighborhood) of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. It is the only ''barrio'' in the administrative division ''Comuna'' 6. It is located in the geographical centre of the city, limited ...

. After realizing climate change had social ramifications as well as environmental ones, Becker changed her course in college from

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

in her first year. She is currently studying law at the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

Activism

Since she was eight years old, Becker already joined

Habonim Dror Habonim Dror (, "the builders–freedom") is a Jewish Labor Zionist youth movement formed in 1982 through the merger of two earlier movements: Habonim and Dror. Habonim (, "the builders") was established in 1929 in the United Kingdom and later e ...

and was also part of

Ni una menos Ni una menos (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Not one

oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

less") is a Latin American Fourth-wave feminism, fourth-wave grassroots feminist movement, which started in Argentina and has spread across several Latin American countries, that camp ...

. Her environmental activism started in February 2019 when she saw an Instagram video of young people doing a climate march in Europe, and

Greta Thunberg Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3January 2003) is a Swedish climate activist, climate and political activist initially known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action to climate change mitigation, mitigate the effec ...

became the center of the topic. Because the first International March for the Climate Crisis was held on March 15, 2019, Becker, Bruno Rodriguez, and their other three friends decided to find Jóvenes por el Clima, a part of Youth Climate, by the end of February 2019. They decided to arrange the march in Argentina, joined by 5,000 people after founding the organization. The organization has been pushing Argentina to do the Climate and Ecological Emergency Declaration. The government finally declared on 17 July 2019. In 2019, she received a grant to attend the UN Climate Conference in Madrid on behalf of the Argentine youth. As part of the UnaSolaGeneración campaign on

World Children's Day Children's Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually in honour of children, whose date of observance varies by country. In 1925, International Children's Day was first proclaimed in Geneva during the World Conference on Child Welfare. Sin ...

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

and America Solidaria to promote climate change to youngsters around

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Becker became one of the representatives. In 2019, Becker came 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 ...

under the grant as a youth representative for Argentina. Later, she returned to 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 ...

and met with

UN Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

Antonio Guterres Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular ...

Honor

The

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

gave her a diploma and medal to honor her contribution to social action on 10 March 2020.The Access Initiative (TAI), the

United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC, ECLAC or ''CEPAL'', in Spanish: ''Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe'') is a United Nations regional commission to encourage economic cooper ...

(UN ECLAC), and the

Government of Costa Rica The politics of Costa Rica take place in a framework of a presidential system, presidential, Representative democracy, representative democratic republic, with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the president and their cabinet, ...

appointed Becker as one of the five youth champions succeeding David R. Boyd on the second anniversary of the Escazu Agreement as UNICEF Youth Advocates in 2020. In 2021, she was chosen as "Young Champion of the program" by the SWA.

Career

Becker became a host of the FutuRöck radio program titled ''Permitido pisar el pasto'' with Rodriguez. She is also a columnist for '' El Diario''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Becker, Nicole Argentine environmentalists Women environmentalists Youth climate activists Argentine climate activists Argentine women activists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people