Catherine Gauthier (pronouns: she/her)
Executive Director
cgauthier@enjeu.qc.ca | 514-377-3114
Catherine Gauthier is ENvironnement JEUnesse Executive Director since 2016. In November 2018, she launched the first climate class action in the world to denounce Canada’s inaction in the fight against climate change.
Involved in environmental and social causes since high school, Catherine Gauthier has an unusual background. On behalf of all young people, she addressed over 10,000 members as part of the Canadian delegation at the 11th conference of the parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2005. At the time, she was only 16. Two years later, she was invited to speak at the UN General Assembly, and went on to participate in several more conferences of the countries.
She has also served as a delegate to the UN climate change conferences in Bali (2007), Copenhagen (2009), Cancun (2010), Durban (2011), Doha (2012), Lima (2014), Paris (2015), Marrakech (2016) and Katowice (2018) and Madrid (2019).
Catherine Gauthier has also designed and hosted seminars at the Université de Sherbrooke on international climate policy. She is regularly called upon to lead working groups related to climate change, just and equitable transition, the environment, youth and intergenerational equity. She coordinated the work of the youth working group for the development of Quebec’s Green Economy Plan.
She holds a master’s in International Law and International Policy and has served as the executive director of ENvironnement JEUnesse since 2016. A vegetarian and avid supporter of organic and local farming, Catherine Gauthier practices what she preaches by, for example, riding her bicycle year-round.