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May 2000 Workshop:
Taking Action on Climate Change in the Yukon

The Role of the Northern Climate ExChange in Addressing Climate Change Issues in Canada's North: A Model for Regional Action on a Global Issue?

Aynslie Ogden
Project/Research Officer
Northern Climate ExChange

International concern has been growing during the last few decades that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will change our climate in ways that may be detrimental to our environmental, social and economic systems. Abundant data demonstrate that global climate has warmed during the past 150 years. Temperature increase has not been constant, but has consisted of warming and cooling cycles at intervals of several decades. The long-term trend is one of net global warming with the ten warmest years since 1880 all having occurred in the 1980s or 1990s. Corresponding with this warming, alpine glaciers have been retreating, permafrost has thawed, sea levels have risen, and climatic zones have been shifting. These observations have led the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to conclude, "the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernable human influence on global climate".

A changing climate will affect many components of the Yukon environment. In fact, northern regions are predicted to receive the earliest and most extreme impacts as a result of a changing climate. Scenarios of climate change, based on experimental results of General Circulation Models of the atmosphere for a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide, suggest that this region could warm up by 5°C by the middle of the 21st century. These changes could affect the Yukon economy, wildlife, traditional cultures and recreational activities. Stakeholders will need to respond to the effects of climate change on water and land resources. These responses will be influenced by the political, lifestyle and economic choices made by government officials, community residents and industry leaders in response to global realities. "The experience of the Mackenzie Basin Impact Study (MBIS) suggests that an integrated assessment requires a partnership of stakeholders and scientists, in which visions are shared and respected, and information is freely exchanged" (Stewart Cohen, 1997). The vision behind the establishment of the Northern Climate ExChange is rooted in this fact.

Northern Climate ExChange

The Northern Climate ExChange, established in February 2000, is a Yukon-based centre for climate change research and education in the circumpolar north. Goals of the centre include:

• Facilitating a clearer understanding of the impacts of climate change on the northern economy, environment and social fabric;
• Increasing science and research capacity among northerners and improve the links between scientific and local northern ecological information;
• Promoting local economic opportunities in the development of resource efficient technologies and practices that can contribute to mitigating climate change impacts;
• Fostering circumpolar partnerships and strengthen Canada's role as a scientific and political leader in the circumpolar north;
• Contributing to regional and national northern policy decisions and development of policy tools;
• Increasing general awareness of the issue of climate change, its impacts on the north, and the global benefits of northern-based research;
• Establishing a series of coordination points in the North to anchor climate change research activities; and
• Providing public education and outreach programs on climate change issues in the north.

Workshop -- Taking Action on Climate Change in the Yukon

On May 15-17, 2000, the Northern Climate ExChange hosted a workshop called Taking Action on Climate Change in the Yukon. The purpose of this workshop was to involve First Nations, communities, industry, scientists, educators and government in the development of a vision to deal with climate change in the Yukon. Participants were asked to identify needs and develop options for addressing climate change issues, and to assess priorities for action. The main objective of this workshop was to define the role of the Northern Climate ExChange, and other agencies/organizations, in developing and carrying out this plan.

The workshop consisted of the following components:

• Presentations (to set the stage for the breakout group discussions);
• Breakout group sessions (to provide participants with an opportunity to identify needs and discuss options for taking action on climate change in the Yukon);
• Summary of breakout group sessions (to summarize the results of the breakout group sessions for discussion amongst all participants of the workshop);
• Wrap-up session (to revisit the main objective of this workshop, which was to define the role of the Northern Climate ExChange);
• Public information session (to present traditional and scientific perspectives on observations of climate change impacts in the Yukon to the general public).

Over 70 people attended the workshop and 65 the public information session, held at Yukon College. The breakdown of participants is as follows:

You may be asking -- why is it important to develop a community-based vision for climate change action in the Yukon? We believe it is important for the following reasons:

• Community participation in research and decision making is essential to long term resource, environmental and cultural sustainability in the North;
• An integrated, community-based, northern approach to addressing the challenges posed by climate change, that complements other climate change initiatives including the National Implementation Strategy and the Impacts and Adaptation Research Network, will make best use of limited resources and will be better received by national and international audiences;
• Regional efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may not be sufficient to reduce the potential impacts of climate change in the Yukon;
• It is in the best interest of Yukoners to be well-prepared to address the possible impacts of climate change and reduce the vulnerability of our environmental, economic and social systems to those impacts; and
• To put in place milestones for action and to monitor progress.

Recommendations

Some of the recommendations on the role of the Northern Climate ExChange from the workshop are as follows. More detailed information on the outcome of the workshop are described in the summaries of the breakout group sessions.

• The NCE should be a catalyst for climate change knowledge and awareness and be a central source of information with respect to climate change initiatives.
• The NCE should allow for various tiers of access (levels of detail and manners of presentation) when providing information.
• The NCE should bring together experts and decision-makers to develop strategies to reduce our vulnerability to climate change impacts and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• The NCE should track industries, sectors and ecosystems that are being affected by current climatic variations and promote dialogue with resource managers and stakeholder groups to identify and encourage the development of adaptation strategies to address emerging issues.
• The NCE should thoroughly investigate the nature of information required to address climate change impacts and adaptation issues across the north.
• The NCE should liaise with existing partnership processes and stakeholder groups to foster partnerships and put climate change into existing consultation processes in an efficient manner, and play a facilitative role to generate consensus in the community on difficult adaptation questions.
• The NCE needs to develop a model for how to finance the centre into the future as continuity of the Northern Climate ExChange is expected and assumed. Given the long-term nature of the issues surrounding climate change impacts, it is very important to ensure there is are long term commitments, goals and vision.

Along with recommendations for the Northern Climate ExChange, workshop participants also had some specific recommendations for governments, communities, industry, and researchers. Many of these recommendations were consistent with the outcomes of the Mackenzie Basin Impact Study, and the February 2000 CCAF workshop in Yellowknife. Firstly, governments should consider climate change in management agreements for natural resources and environmental impact assessments for development projects, and should encourage and support community-based monitoring and archiving programs. Communities should participate in monitoring programs and begin discussing strategies for adapting local infrastructure to a change in climate. Private sector industries such as forestry, transportation, mining, construction and oil and gas should include climate change considerations in research, planning and design of projects such as pipelines, dams and tailing ponds. Lastly, researchers should consider developing a centralized archive of data relating to climate change and consider community needs in the design of research programs.

NCE -- A Model for Regional Action on a Global Issue?

Although climate change is a global issue, it has important regional dimensions. The creation of the Northern Climate Exchange provides a new opportunity for Northerners to learn more about climate change, and to contribute their knowledge so that a regional response to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and minimize our vulnerability to climate change impacts, can be developed.

The NCE workplan should strive to be relevant at local, national and international levels. The workplan should also be both flexible and adaptive to incorporate all elements of climate change, and the evolving needs of northern communities, industries and governments. Through ongoing consultation, the NCE should focus on the relevance of climate change to the Yukon public and the north in general and based on consultation, derive 'useful' approaches to address those needs into the future.

Will the NCE experiment be a model for other regions (national and international) to move uncertain science forward into consensus action? Only time will tell...