Leonardo DiCaprio producing climate change-themed young adult novel adaptation

Leonardo DiCaprio is marrying his love of the environment and movies by producing an adaptation of climate change-themed novel The Sandcastle Empire.

The Revenant star and his Appian Way partner, Jennifer Davisson, will produce the project, which is based on author Kayla Olson's book of the same name.

The novel is set in the year 2049 when the Earth is "at a breaking point due to climate change, coastal flooding and overpopulation", and a "radical faction known as the Wolfpack overthrows the government and takes control."

DiCaprio has been a fierce advocate for environmental issues over the years, launching the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998. The organisation is dedicated to protecting the world’s last wild places.

DiCaprio, who recently picked up a Screen Actors Guild Award in the Best Actor category for his portrayal of frontiersman Hugh Glass in The Revenant, believes climate change is impacting his work.

The star previously claimed he witnessed the effects of global warming while filming The Revenant firsthand, revealing the production team was forced to relocate to Tierra del Fuego in Argentina at the last minute as the snows of Calgary, Canada disappeared.

“We were fighting the cold on a personal level and we were fighting the cold as far as logistics go, in terms of getting the locations and the fact that the temperatures were so sporadic," he explained to Entertainment Weekly. "It was one of the most sporadic years in that area’s history due to the changing climate."