Chris Turner

Author and Journalist

Chris Turner is an author, essayist and strategist providing one of Canada’s leading voices on climate solutions, with more than 20 years of experience tracking the global energy transition. His latest book, HOW TO BE A CLIMATE OPTIMIST, won the 2023 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. His previous books on climate, energy and technology include multiple bestsellers and award winners. His essays and features on energy, climate and technology have appeared in The New Yorker, The Globe & Mail, the MIT Technology Review, and many other publications, and he has won 10 National Magazine Awards.

As a speaker and communications strategist, Turner’s recent clients have included the Canadian Climate Institute, Public Policy Forum, ASHRAE, Siemens Energy, TD Bank, the United Nations, and Natural Resources Canada. He was a 2019 media fellow at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue, a 2013 writer-in-residence at the Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon, and a 2010 Paul D. Fleck Fellow at the Banff Centre. After building his career for 20 years in Calgary, he now lives on a farm outside Antigonish, Nova Scotia, with his wife, the author Ashley Bristowe, and their family.