Christine Leclerc

She is an award-winning author and science communicator who studies the water cycle impacts of nature-based climate solutions at Simon Fraser University’s Climate Research Lab. Her research quantifies how large-scale afforestation and reforestation affect precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, runoff, and groundwater through the end of the 21st century, with implications for drought and flood management. She holds a BSc in Physical Geography from Simon Fraser University (2021) and earlier earned an MFA (2010) and a BFA (2008) in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. In 2019 she took part in the Center for United Nations Constitutional Research (CUNCR) Youth Climate Ambassadors program, training in international environmental law and global governance and joining the Climate Justice and Democracy Summit in Greece, where participants helped shape the Epirus Declaration for Climate Democracy. Her advocacy connects climate justice, rights of the environment, Indigenous rights, and democratic global governance. Beyond her research, she has served as an IPCC expert reviewer, as a member of the inaugural cohort of Evidence for Democracy’s Science to Policy Accelerator, and on the boards of Embark Sustainability and Sierra Club BC.