About the course
The course was first offered in Iqaluit in November 2014.The course included three main components:
- In class sessions- A two-day in-class session on a variety of climate change topics, including climate change science, impacts of climate change on Nunavut, Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and climate change, and how to include climate change considerations into decision-making.
- Resource guides- Sector specific resource guides provide additional information to each sector. They will help northern employees apply climate change to their specific area of work. Download the Resource Guides below!
- Nunavut’s Built Infrastructure
- Nunavut’s Natural Environment
- Nunavut’s Emergency Planning and Extreme Weather
- Nunavut’s Health and Culture
- Nunavut’s Economy and Competitiveness
- Decision maker’s tool- A flow chart to help decide when to include climate change adaptation in your decision making!
The course was developed as part of a series of territorial climate change adaptation training courses with the Governments of Yukon and Northwest Territories. The course further fostered pan-territorial collaboration by working with the Northern Climate ExChange, a research group with the Yukon Research Centre, who modified the course from the Yukon version and delivered this new Nunavut version.
Development was guided by advisory committee feedback. Committee members included Government of Nunavut staff from various departments and other key knowledge holders.Funding for course development and delivery was provided through Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada’s Climate Change Adaptation Program funding.
Who participated
Course participants included representatives from the Government of Nunavut’s departments and agencies, and the City of Iqaluit. They came from various sectors including: health, environment, emergency services, built infrastructure, energy, tourism, and resource development.
Why climate change mainstreaming
This course was developed due to a strong demand across the territory by Nunavut decision makers to learn more about climate change impacts and how to include adaptation measures into their work plans. An added benefit of the course was the cross-sectoral partnership building that took place throughout the two days of conversations. Many climate change impacts affect various sectors, requiring a multi-disciplinary team to work together to adapt to these changes.
By providing Nunavut decision makers with the necessary foundational knowledge and resources to help integrate climate change adaptation into their work, this helps the entire territory of Nunavut better understand climate change impacts and deal with the changes we are seeing.
The Climate Change Section encourages all Nunavut decision makers to incorporate climate change adaptation measures into their everyday work – from education, health, infrastructure, and cultural sectors among others. Incorporating climate change into policies and planning is known as climate change mainstreaming and is happening here in Nunavut as well as globally.
Next steps
The pilot is being evaluated by team members and course participants to give valuable feedback on course materials and delivery. The course will continue to be offered so that more Nunavut decision makers can benefit from learning about climate change adaptation.
For more information about the course, please contact us!
Check out the one page Information Note on this project at the Pan-Territorial Adaptation website!