BECOME AN EMEN CLIMATE AMBASSADOR
Would you like to be involved in the fight for climate justice? With all the issues surrounding this topic, it can be difficult to know where to start.
EMEN Ambassadors will be involved in a wide range of community engagement and impactful advocacy efforts, both nationally and within their local communities, to support EMEN’s causes.
From engaging decision-makers to mobilising their local communities, this programme will develop participants from ethnic minority communities as climate leaders who can engage confidently in policy and decision-making within the environmental sector, advocate for climate justice, influence and inspire others, and initiate their own events, initiatives, or organisations.
The programme will focus on connecting young EM participants to resources, professional networks, skills and exposure needed to become local changemakers and advocates, while focusing on increasing young people’s participation in environmental issues. While focusing on social and environmental justice, the programme will empower EM youths to address systemic inequality while also providing them with tools to shape a resilient and equitable future.
It will be a transformative programme for youths to address climate justice and environmental challenges. The programme will last for one year and will also focus on young people across Scotland.
Meet 2026/2027 EMEN Ambassadors
Meet our members who will be involved in a wide range of community engagement and impactful advocacy efforts, both nationally and within their local communities, to support EMEN’s causes.
Abhirami Arunachalam
Abhirami is a sustainability and climate professional who moved from Chennai, India, to Edinburgh, where she recently completed an MSc in Global Strategy and Sustainability. Over the past decade, she has worked across both grassroots and corporate climate action, from co-founding an environmental NGO in India to ESG work in the corporate world. Here in Scotland, she works as a Heat Network Coordinator at Porty Community Energy and serves as a board member at Gorgie City Farm.
Emmanuel Bongay
Emmanuel Bongay is an Economist and a climate development researcher with an MSc in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh and a First-Class degree in Economics. His work focuses on climate change, environmental governance, sustainable development, and community livelihoods. He has experience working with young people, communities, businesses, and government institutions in Sierra Leone and the UK.
Parker Dymond
Parker is a Vietnamese American masters student at the University of Glasgow studying applied conservation science. He loves being in nature and birding. I believe environmental justice is justice for all.
Yusra Patel
Yusra is a graduate of the MSc Data, Inequality and Society programme at the University of Edinburgh with an interdisciplinary background in tech, communications and community building.
Akari Kanakubo
Originally from Japan and now based in Edinburgh, Akari recently completed her MSc dissertation focusing on wetland conservation, community engagement, and environmental policy. she care deeply about making climate action inclusive, welcoming, and down-to-earth. Her background spans cross-cultural event coordination, volunteer engagement at local sustainability and ecological initiatives, and learning directly from urban coastal communities.
Lili Grigorian
Lili is a Landscape Officer with experience in sustainability, nature-based solutions, urban acoustics and the circular economy. Having a black belt in working in various councils, She’s passionate about smart solutions for saving nature from all kinds of pollution. Lili has studied in 5 countries – Russia, Scotland, Finland, Germany and Spain and she’s always excited to learn more!
Sakshi Raizada
Sakshi is a creative, diplomatic Civil Servant and writer with a passion for social justice and making a fairer, more equitable world for everyone.
Zermina Qayyum
Zermina holds a master’s in climate change and has 2 years of teaching experience. She also worked as a volunteer for climate justice and minority communities.
Asumi Kato
Asumi is originally from Japan but is currently studying Sustainable Development and Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. She’s been involved in environmental activism since teenage years, and she’s particularly passionate about examining the intersection of environmental issues with postcolonial dynamics and racial marginalisation. Other than that, she love music (she sings and plays the guitar), fashion, travelling, cooking, writing etc.
Opeoluwa Otitoola
Opeoluwa is an advocate for climate justice, his scientific research has broadened his understanding about the role of climate change and he’s look forward to a more sustainable environment in the future.
Siddhi Joshi
Siddhi Joshi is a social-impact practitioner, researcher, poet, and artist whose work bridges gender justice, sustainability, youth leadership, and community-led change. She has designed and led initiatives advancing intercultural dialogue, youth capacity-building, and advocacy with the U.S. Department of State, AFS Intercultural India, and grassroots organizations across South Asia and the UK. She founded Project Laal Lahar and co-founded Project Paint Our Stories, using participatory arts to advance menstrual dignity and LGBTQIA+ inclusion. A Commonwealth Scholar alumna, she is now a doctoral researcher at the University of Glasgow, where her ethnographic research explores repair, belonging, and community resilience.
Zuhaib Khan
Zuhaib is an Environmental Health Officer with The Highland Council, working in private water supplies and managing the Sutherland area. His work covers risk assessment, contamination investigation, and building the GIS and data tools that are use to decide where to focus efforts.
Avgusta Chiriaeva
Avgusta is an urban planning and climate professional currently working as a Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy Officer at West Dunbartonshire Council, with a background spanning architecture, urban governance and environmental science across degrees in Russia, Spain, Finland and the UK, with an internship at UNFCCC on climate transparency. Coming from Yakutia in Siberia, she grew up in an Indigenous Arctic community where winters hit -50°C – an experience that gave her a visceral, early understanding of energy security and the built environment as matters of survival, not abstraction. That grounding shapes how she approach climate work today, and she’s especially interested in making environmental policy and green transitions more transparent and inclusive for communities like mine..
Prakriti Negi
Prak is a sustainability professional based in Glasgow. Her work sits where people, planet and data meet. Five years at a non profit in India taught her that real change starts with equity. For Prak, her MSc showed her how evidence can drive it and has since continue to believe that a just transition is the only one worth building!
Wendjisuvera
Wendejisuvera is a passionate healthcare student who enjoys community involvement, connecting with people, and supporting positive social and environmental change.
Felix Lumen
Felix is a Community Gardener with a background in Anti-racism and contemporary art