Leena Joshi is an iconic, multi-award-winning social entrepreneur, global climate activist, bestselling author, and one of the most electrifying voices of her generation. Her name has become synonymous with youth-powered environmental revolution, and her leadership is redefining what it means to create systems change in the era of climate crisis.
She is the founder and Executive Director of Climate Conservancy, a global youth-led nonprofit with over 9,000 volunteers across 67 countries, mobilizing young people to lead scalable, intersectional climate solutions. Under her leadership, the organization has become a beacon for next-gen climate action; merging art, activism, science, policy, and grassroots action.
Leena is also the Chair and CEO of EcoVita, a cutting-edge climate-tech social enterprise at the forefront of regenerative innovation, impact investing, and justice-centered sustainability. Her influence spans industries, continents, and sectors earning her a seat at some of the most powerful tables in global climate leadership.
A commanding presence on the world stage, Leena has spoken at Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Sciences Po and TEDx, and has been featured at premier climate and policy summits including COP, the UN General Assembly, and the World Bank’s high-level forums. Her work and voice have been celebrated by the United Nations, World Bank Group and many international media outlets.
As a Youth Stocktake Researcher, Leena co-authored the UNFCCC Youth Stocktake Report, a pivotal document that is reshaping youth engagement in global climate governance. She currently serves as a Research Advisor to Imperial College London, where her work on climate anxiety and ecological grief is trailblazing new global conversations around the emotional and psychological costs of climate breakdown.
A two-time published author, Leena’s books—The Climate Awakening and Ethereal are poetic, soul-stirring manifestos for a livable future. As a climate poet, abstract artist, and conservation photographer, her art has been exhibited and performed globally, translating planetary urgency into visceral beauty. Her work is a force of storytelling that transcends borders, merging aesthetics with activism in ways few others can.
From the frontlines of grassroots organizing to the epicenters of international policy, Leena Joshi is redefining the future of the climate movement.
Leena Joshi
Leena Joshi's Story
I was nine years old when I first realized that air could shape a life. In New Delhi, smog was not an occasional haze but a constant presence, a reality that pressed against my chest and filled my lungs. Breathing was never effortless. It was not until a childhood trip to Switzerland that I saw a sky unmarked by pollution. I remember the startling clarity of it, the almost impossible sensation of air that carried no weight. For the first time, I could inhale without fear. That day gave me a question that never left me: why can’t this be possible back home?
​
A few years later in my early teens, on a walk along the beach, I discovered another truth. The sand was warm beneath my feet, the sky softened into dusk, yet the shoreline was scarred by plastic. Bottles, wrappers, and fragments of waste clung to the coast like unwanted relics of our choices. That sight unsettled me deeply, not because it was surprising, but because it was familiar. I knew then that air and ocean, breath and tide, were bound together. The same systems failing us on land were washing ashore before my eyes.
​
I began where many young people begin: with questions. Why were we treating planetary survival as optional? Why did conversations about climate justice not include the voices of those living its consequences? I turned to my peers and started discussions about climate change, ocean plastic pollution, and conservation. I used the reach of social media to share knowledge, raise questions, and amplify a call for action. What began as conversations in classrooms and posts online soon became a community of young people eager to learn and to act.
​
It was from this current of urgency and solidarity that I founded Climate Conservancy. What began as an idea has grown into an international youth-led movement with grassroots chapters in sixty-seven countries and 9000 volunteers. At its heart, Climate Conservancy is committed to making climate action intersectional. I believe that conversations about climate are inseparable from conversations about health, gender, justice, arts and culture. I believe in the power of solving the climate crisis through intersectionality of climate and other social issues because that is how they are lived in the real world.
​
My initiatives reflect this ethos. Through Climate Conservancy chapters program, I enabled young people to lead grassroots climate and conservation projects rooted in their own contexts: mangrove restoration, coastal cleanups, education workshops, advocacy campaigns, and more. I see my organization as a bridge, connecting local action with global solidarity.
​
One of my most distinctive programs is ArtSea, which uses art as a vessel for ocean conservation. Through murals, performances, and exhibitions, young artists transform public spaces into living reminders of the ocean’s fragility and resilience. Art, after all, moves people in relatable and emotional ways. It stirs, it unsettles, it provokes memory and imagination. ArtSea transforms creativity into a powerful means of conservation, affirming that the protection of the ocean is both an ecological necessity and a cultural responsibility.
​
This journey from smog-filled childhood skies to ocean-centered global activism is more than personal. It is a reflection of a collective story. If children grow up believing that clean air is a privilege, something is profoundly broken. If communities watch their coastlines drown in plastic, they deserve more than sympathy, they deserve solutions. And if youth, so often unheard, can mobilize across continents, then imagine what becomes possible when industries, institutions, and leaders finally listen.
​
My story is not a conclusion but an invitation. Climate justice is about breathing room: for the Earth and for every being that calls it home. It is about ensuring that no child grows up thinking that survival is conditional, and no coastline is left to carry the weight of our neglect. The ocean is telling us its story already. The question is whether we will act in time to listen to it.
