The Canadian Arctic is experiencing climate change at a rate two to three times faster than the global average. For Inuit communities who have thrived in this challenging environment for millennia, this rapid transformation presents unprecedented challenges. Yet, drawing on their deep connection to the land, traditional knowledge, and innovative spirit, Inuit are leading the way in climate change adaptation, offering lessons of resilience that resonate far beyond the Arctic Circle.
The Changing Face of the North
The impacts of climate change in the Arctic are stark and far-reaching. Melting sea ice, thawing permafrost, and changing wildlife patterns are not just environmental concerns – they strike at the heart of Inuit culture, livelihoods, and well-being.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, renowned Inuit activist and author, puts it powerfully: “What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic. The environmental issues we face are a glimpse into the future for the rest of the world. Our struggle for survival is humanity’s struggle for survival.”
Traditional Knowledge: The Bedrock of Adaptation
At the core of Inuit resilience is Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) – traditional knowledge passed down through generations. This holistic understanding of the environment is proving invaluable in navigating the challenges of a changing climate.
Adaptive Hunting and Travel
As sea ice becomes less predictable, Inuit hunters are adapting their practices, combining traditional knowledge with modern technology. In Nunavut, hunters use GPS and satellite imagery alongside traditional navigation methods to safely traverse changing ice conditions.
Tommy Akulukjuk, an Inuk hunter from Pangnirtung, shares, “Our Elders taught us to read the ice, the wind, the currents. Now, we’re teaching our youth to use these skills alongside new technologies. It’s about adapting our traditions, not abandoning them.”
Changing Food Systems
(Image Credit: Getty Images, Licensed from Unsplash)
Climate change is altering the availability of traditional food sources. In response, many communities are revitalizing traditional food preservation techniques while exploring new food sources.
In Nunavik, northern Quebec, community freezers stocked with country food (traditional game and fish) are helping to ensure food security as hunting conditions become more unpredictable. Simultaneously, some communities are experimenting with greenhouse agriculture, adapting southern growing techniques to the Arctic environment.
Community-Led Initiatives
(Image Credit – Dion Tavenier, Unsplash)
Across the Canadian Arctic, Inuit communities are taking the lead in developing and implementing adaptation strategies.
The Nunavut Climate Change Centre
Established by the Government of Nunavut, the Nunavut Climate Change Centre is a hub for climate adaptation initiatives. It combines scientific research with Inuit knowledge to develop practical adaptation strategies.
David Kunuk, a coordinator at the centre, explains, “We’re bringing together Elders, hunters, and scientists to understand how climate change is affecting our communities and what we can do about it. It’s about finding solutions that work for us, rooted in our culture and knowledge.”
SmartICE: Bridging Traditional Knowledge and Technology
SmartICE (Sea-ice Monitoring And Real-Time Information for Coastal Environments) is an innovative program that integrates traditional knowledge of sea ice with state-of-the-art technology. Developed in partnership with Inuit communities, SmartICE provides real-time information on ice conditions, enhancing safety for hunters and travellers.
Trevor Bell, the founder of SmartICE, notes, “This isn’t just about technology – it’s about supporting Inuit knowledge and decision-making. The system is designed and operated by Inuit, for Inuit.”
Health and Well-being in a Changing North
Climate change poses significant challenges to Inuit health and well-being, from increased risk of accidents on unstable ice to impacts on mental health as traditional ways of life are disrupted.
Mental Health Initiatives
Many communities are developing mental health programs that incorporate traditional Inuit values and practices. The Aullak, sangilivallianginnatuk (Going Off, Growing Strong) program in Nain, Nunatsiavut, combines on-the-land activities with mental health support, helping youth build resilience in the face of rapid change.
Revitalizing Traditional Medicine
As the Arctic ecosystem changes, some traditional medicinal plants are becoming scarcer. In response, initiatives like the Nunavik Inuit Research Centre are working to document traditional medicinal knowledge and explore ways to cultivate important plants locally.
Policy and Advocacy: Inuit Voices on the Global Stage
Inuit leaders are ensuring that Arctic voices are heard in national and international climate policy discussions.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami’s National Inuit Climate Change Strategy
The Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national representational organization for Inuit in Canada, has developed a comprehensive National Inuit Climate Change Strategy. This strategy outlines Inuit-led approaches to climate change adaptation and mitigation, emphasizing the importance of Inuit knowledge in policymaking.
Natan Obed, President of ITK, states, “Our strategy isn’t just about adapting to climate change – it’s about asserting our right to self-determination in how we respond to this crisis. It’s about ensuring Inuit knowledge and priorities are at the forefront of Arctic climate policy.”
International Advocacy
Inuit leaders are also active on the international stage, bringing Arctic perspectives to global climate negotiations. Their advocacy emphasizes the interconnectedness of Arctic climate change with global systems and the importance of Indigenous leadership in climate solutions.
Challenges and Opportunities
While Inuit communities are demonstrating remarkable resilience, significant challenges remain. Limited infrastructure, high costs of living, and the rapid pace of change all complicate adaptation efforts. However, these challenges are also driving innovation and strengthening community bonds.
The Arctic’s changing climate also presents new economic opportunities, from increased shipping to tourism. However, Inuit leaders stress the importance of approaching these opportunities sustainably and in ways that benefit local communities.
Lessons for the World
The Inuit experience of climate change adaptation offers valuable lessons for communities worldwide. It demonstrates the importance of local knowledge in developing effective adaptation strategies, the power of community-led initiatives, and the need for holistic approaches that consider environmental, cultural, and social factors.
Inuit Leadership in a Changing World
As the Arctic continues to warm, Inuit communities stand as global leaders in climate change adaptation. Their approaches, rooted in traditional knowledge yet open to innovation, offer a model of resilience in the face of unprecedented change.
The story of Arctic adaptation is one of challenge and hope — of a people drawing on ancient wisdom to face a rapidly changing future. As the world grapples with the global impacts of climate change, we would do well to look to the North, where Inuit communities are lighting the way towards a resilient, adaptive future.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a prominent Inuit activist, emphasizes that Indigenous Peoples should not be viewed merely as victims of climate change. Instead, she highlights their profound understanding of their environment and their remarkable resilience. Watt-Cloutier argues that the Indigenous experience of thriving in challenging environments has equipped them with unique insights and abilities. These skills and knowledge, she suggests, position Indigenous peoples to take a leading role in global efforts to address and adapt to climate change. A truly remarkable people.
As we face a future of increasing climate uncertainty, the resilience, knowledge, and leadership of Inuit communities offer not just inspiration but practical lessons in how to adapt, survive, and thrive in a changing world.
Blog by Rye Karonhiowanen Barberstock
(Header Image Credit: Unsplash Community, Licensed by Unsplash)
The post Arctic Resilience: Inuit Communities at the Forefront of Climate Change Adaptation appeared first on Indigenous Climate Hub.
Arctic Resilience: Inuit Communities at the Forefront of Climate Change Adaptation
Climate Change
DeBriefed 15 August 2025: Raging wildfires; Xi’s priorities; Factchecking the Trump climate report
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Blazing heat hits Europe
FANNING THE FLAMES: Wildfires “fanned by a heatwave and strong winds” caused havoc across southern Europe, Reuters reported. It added: “Fire has affected nearly 440,000 hectares (1,700 square miles) in the eurozone so far in 2025, double the average for the same period of the year since 2006.” Extreme heat is “breaking temperature records across Europe”, the Guardian said, with several countries reporting readings of around 40C.
HUMAN TOLL: At least three people have died in the wildfires erupting across Spain, Turkey and Albania, France24 said, adding that the fires have “displaced thousands in Greece and Albania”. Le Monde reported that a child in Italy “died of heatstroke”, while thousands were evacuated from Spain and firefighters “battled three large wildfires” in Portugal.
UK WILDFIRE RISK: The UK saw temperatures as high as 33.4C this week as England “entered its fourth heatwave”, BBC News said. The high heat is causing “nationally significant” water shortfalls, it added, “hitting farms, damaging wildlife and increasing wildfires”. The Daily Mirror noted that these conditions “could last until mid-autumn”. Scientists warn the UK faces possible “firewaves” due to climate change, BBC News also reported.
Around the world
- GRID PRESSURES: Iraq suffered a “near nationwide blackout” as elevated power demand – due to extreme temperatures of around 50C – triggered a transmission line failure, Bloomberg reported.
- ‘DIRE’ DOWN UNDER: The Australian government is keeping a climate risk assessment that contains “dire” implications for the continent “under wraps”, the Australian Financial Review said.
- EXTREME RAINFALL: Mexico City is “seeing one of its heaviest rainy seasons in years”, the Washington Post said. Downpours in the Japanese island of Kyushu “caused flooding and mudslides”, according to Politico. In Kashmir, flash floods killed 56 and left “scores missing”, the Associated Press said.
- SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION: China and Brazil agreed to “ensure the success” of COP30 in a recent phone call, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
- PLASTIC ‘DEADLOCK’: Talks on a plastic pollution treaty have failed again at a summit in Geneva, according to the Guardian, with countries “deadlocked” on whether it should include “curbs on production and toxic chemicals”.
15
The number of times by which the most ethnically-diverse areas in England are more likely to experience extreme heat than its “least diverse” areas, according to new analysis by Carbon Brief.
Latest climate research
- As many as 13 minerals critical for low-carbon energy may face shortages under 2C pathways | Nature Climate Change
- A “scoping review” examined the impact of climate change on poor sexual and reproductive health and rights in sub-Saharan Africa | PLOS One
- A UK university cut the carbon footprint of its weekly canteen menu by 31% “without students noticing” | Nature Food
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
Factchecking Trump’s climate report
A report commissioned by the US government to justify rolling back climate regulations contains “at least 100 false or misleading statements”, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists. The report, compiled in two months by five hand-picked researchers, inaccurately claims that “CO2-induced warming might be less damaging economically than commonly believed” and misleadingly states that “excessively aggressive [emissions] mitigation policies could prove more detrimental than beneficial”80
Spotlight
Does Xi Jinping care about climate change?
This week, Carbon Brief unpacks new research on Chinese president Xi Jinping’s policy priorities.
On this day in 2005, Xi Jinping, a local official in eastern China, made an unplanned speech when touring a small village – a rare occurrence in China’s highly-choreographed political culture.
In it, he observed that “lucid waters and lush mountains are mountains of silver and gold” – that is, the environment cannot be sacrificed for the sake of growth.
(The full text of the speech is not available, although Xi discussed the concept in a brief newspaper column – see below – a few days later.)
In a time where most government officials were laser-focused on delivering economic growth, this message was highly unusual.
Forward-thinking on environment
As a local official in the early 2000s, Xi endorsed the concept of “green GDP”, which integrates the value of natural resources and the environment into GDP calculations.
He also penned a regular newspaper column, 22 of which discussed environmental protection – although “climate change” was never mentioned.
This focus carried over to China’s national agenda when Xi became president.
New research from the Asia Society Policy Institute tracked policies in which Xi is reported by state media to have “personally” taken action.
It found that environmental protection is one of six topics in which he is often said to have directly steered policymaking.
Such policies include guidelines to build a “Beautiful China”, the creation of an environmental protection inspection team and the “three-north shelterbelt” afforestation programme.
“It’s important to know what Xi’s priorities are because the top leader wields outsized influence in the Chinese political system,” Neil Thomas, Asia Society Policy Institute fellow and report co-author, told Carbon Brief.
Local policymakers are “more likely” to invest resources in addressing policies they know have Xi’s attention, to increase their chances for promotion, he added.
What about climate and energy?
However, the research noted, climate and energy policies have not been publicised as bearing Xi’s personal touch.
“I think Xi prioritises environmental protection more than climate change because reducing pollution is an issue of social stability,” Thomas said, noting that “smoggy skies and polluted rivers” were more visible and more likely to trigger civil society pushback than gradual temperature increases.
The paper also said topics might not be linked to Xi personally when they are “too technical” or “politically sensitive”.
For example, Xi’s landmark decision for China to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 is widely reported as having only been made after climate modelling – facilitated by former climate envoy Xie Zhenhua – showed that this goal was achievable.
Prior to this, Xi had never spoken publicly about carbon neutrality.
Prof Alex Wang, a University of California, Los Angeles professor of law not involved in the research, noted that emphasising Xi’s personal attention may signal “top” political priorities, but not necessarily Xi’s “personal interests”.
By not emphasising climate, he said, Xi may be trying to avoid “pushing the system to overprioritise climate to the exclusion of the other priorities”.
There are other ways to know where climate ranks on the policy agenda, Thomas noted:
“Climate watchers should look at what Xi says, what Xi does and what policies Xi authorises in the name of the ‘central committee’. Is Xi talking more about climate? Is Xi establishing institutions and convening meetings that focus on climate? Is climate becoming a more prominent theme in top-level documents?”
Watch, read, listen
TRUMP EFFECT: The Columbia Energy Exchange podcast examined how pressure from US tariffs could affect India’s clean energy transition.
NAMIBIAN ‘DESTRUCTION’: The National Observer investigated the failure to address “human rights abuses and environmental destruction” claims against a Canadian oil company in Namibia.
‘RED AI’: The Network for the Digital Economy and the Environment studied the state of current research on “Red AI”, or the “negative environmental implications of AI”.
Coming up
- 17 August: Bolivian general elections
- 18-29 August: Preparatory talks on the entry into force of the “High Seas Treaty”, New York
- 18-22 August: Y20 Summit, Johannesburg
- 21 August: Advancing the “Africa clean air programme” through Africa-Asia collaboration, Yokohama
Pick of the jobs
- Lancaster Environment Centre, senior research associate: JUST Centre | Salary: £39,355-£45,413. Location: Lancaster, UK
- Environmental Justice Foundation, communications and media officer, Francophone Africa | Salary: XOF600,000-XOF800,000. Location: Dakar, Senegal
- Politico, energy & climate editor | Salary: Unknown. Location: Brussels, Belgium
- EnviroCatalysts, meteorologist | Salary: Unknown. Location: New Delhi, India
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
The post DeBriefed 15 August 2025: Raging wildfires; Xi’s priorities; Factchecking the Trump climate report appeared first on Carbon Brief.
DeBriefed 15 August 2025: Raging wildfires; Xi’s priorities; Factchecking the Trump climate report
Climate Change
New York Already Denied Permits to These Gas Pipelines. Under Trump, They Could Get Greenlit
The specter of a “gas-for-wind” compromise between the governor and the White House is drawing the ire of residents as a deadline looms.
Hundreds of New Yorkers rallied against new natural gas pipelines in their state as a deadline loomed for the public to comment on a revived proposal to expand the gas pipeline that supplies downstate New York.
New York Already Denied Permits to These Gas Pipelines. Under Trump, They Could Get Greenlit
A “critical assessment” report commissioned by the Trump administration to justify a rollback of US climate regulations contains at least 100 false or misleading statements, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists.
The report – “A critical review of impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the US climate” – was published by the US Department of Energy (DoE) on 23 July, just days before the government laid out plans to revoke a scientific finding used as the legal basis for emissions regulation.
The executive summary of the controversial report inaccurately claims that “CO2-induced warming might be less damaging economically than commonly believed”.
It also states misleadingly that “excessively aggressive [emissions] mitigation policies could prove more detrimental than beneficial”.
Compiled in just two months by five “independent” researchers hand-selected by the climate-sceptic US secretary of energy Chris Wright, the document has sparked fierce criticism from climate scientists, who have pointed to factual errors, misrepresentation of research, messy citations and the cherry-picking of data.
Experts have also noted the authors’ track record of promoting views at odds with the mainstream understanding of climate science.
Wright’s department claims the report – which is currently open to public comment as part of a 30-day review – underwent an “internal peer-review period amongst [the] DoE’s scientific research community”.
The report is designed to provide a scientific underpinning to one flank of the Trump administration’s plans to rescind a finding that serves as the legal prerequisite for federal emissions regulation. (The second flank is about legal authority to regulate emissions.)
The “endangerment finding” – enacted by the Obama administration in 2009 – states that six greenhouse gases are contributing to the net-negative impacts of climate change and, thus, put the public in danger.
In a press release on 29 July, the US Environmental Protection Agency said “updated studies and information” set out in the new report would “challenge the assumptions” of the 2009 finding.
Carbon Brief asked a wide range of climate scientists, including those cited in the “critical review” itself, to factcheck the report’s various claims and statements.
The post Factcheck: Trump’s climate report includes more than 100 false or misleading claims appeared first on Carbon Brief.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-trumps-climate-report-includes-more-than-100-false-or-misleading-claims/
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