In the face of unprecedented climate change, Canada’s Indigenous communities are turning to their most revered knowledge keepers: the Elders. These respected individuals, with their deep understanding of the land and generations of accumulated wisdom, are playing a crucial role in guiding their communities through the challenges of a changing climate. Their insights, rooted in centuries of observation and spiritual connection to the land, offer unique and valuable perspectives on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Traditional Knowledge and Climate Observations
Elders serve as living archives of environmental knowledge, their memories stretching back decades and their teachings encompassing centuries of collective experience. This long-term perspective is invaluable in understanding the subtle shifts in climate that might escape modern scientific observation.
In the James Bay region, Cree Elders have been noting changes in wildlife patterns for years. Moses Neepin, an Elder from York Factory First Nation, shares, “The caribou don’t come as far south as they used to. The ice freezes later and breaks up earlier. These changes affect our hunting and our way of life.” Such observations not only inform local adaptation strategies but also provide crucial data points for climate scientists studying long-term trends.
Elders’ ability to interpret natural signs and seasonal changes offers a nuanced understanding of local ecosystems. For instance, Anishinaabe Elders in Ontario have observed changes in maple sap harvesting seasons, noting shifts that impact traditional sugar bush practices. This knowledge helps communities adapt their harvesting techniques while also serving as an early warning system for broader ecosystem changes.
Guiding Sustainable Practices
(Image Credit: Rafael Albornoz, Unsplash)
One of the most significant contributions of Elders in climate change mitigation is their guidance on sustainable practices. Drawing on traditional ecological knowledge, Elders teach younger generations how to live in harmony with the land, a principle that’s becoming increasingly crucial in the fight against climate change.
On Haida Gwaii, Elders have been instrumental in guiding sustainable forestry practices. Guujaaw, a respected Haida leader and Elder, explains, “Our traditional laws teach us to take only what we need and to think of the future generations. This wisdom is helping us manage our forests in a way that both respects our culture and addresses climate concerns.”
These sustainable practices extend beyond forestry. In many communities, Elders are reviving traditional agricultural methods that are proving to be more resilient to changing climate conditions. For example, in the Okanagan Valley, Syilx Elders are sharing knowledge about drought-resistant plants and water conservation techniques that have been used for generations.
Cultural Continuity in the Face of Climate Change
As the climate changes, so too must some cultural practices. Elders play a vital role in ensuring cultural continuity by adapting traditional practices to new environmental realities while maintaining their core spiritual and cultural significance.
Language preservation is a crucial part of this effort. Many Indigenous languages have specific terms related to weather patterns, ice conditions, and animal behaviours that don’t have direct translations in English or French. By preserving these languages, Elders are also preserving a wealth of climate-related knowledge.
Elder Eli Enns from the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation emphasizes this point: “Our language connects us to the land. When we lose words, we lose ways of understanding our environment. Keeping our language alive is part of our climate action.”
Elders in Climate Policy and Decision-Making
(Image Credit: Alan Emery, Unsplash)
Increasingly, Indigenous communities and government bodies are recognizing the importance of including Elders in climate policy and decision-making processes. Their involvement ensures that traditional knowledge is considered alongside scientific data in developing comprehensive climate strategies.
In Nunavut, Inuit Elders play a significant role in the territory’s Climate Change Centre. Their observations of changing sea ice conditions, wildlife migrations, and weather patterns inform policy decisions and adaptation strategies. Elder Jayko Oweetaluktuk shares, “We’ve lived on this land for thousands of years. Our knowledge is not separate from science – it complements it. Together, we can find better solutions.”
Many environmental assessment processes now include consultations with Elders, recognizing that their deep understanding of local ecosystems is crucial for accurately predicting and mitigating the impacts of development projects in a changing climate.
Intergenerational Knowledge Transfer
Perhaps one of the most important roles Elders play is in transferring knowledge to younger generations. This intergenerational learning is vital for building long-term community resilience to climate change.
Across Canada, communities are establishing programs that bring Elders and youth together on the land. In the Northwest Territories, Dene Elders teach young people traditional ice safety techniques, adapting age-old knowledge to account for increasingly unpredictable ice conditions due to climate change.
Sarah Ponask, a youth from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, reflects on her experience: “Learning from our Elders isn’t just about the past – it’s about our future. They teach us how to read the land, how to respect it, and how to protect it. This knowledge is crucial for us as we face climate change.”
Challenges and Opportunities
While the role of Elders in climate change mitigation is increasingly recognized, challenges remain. Documenting and preserving Elder knowledge, especially as it relates to changing environmental conditions, is an ongoing task. Many communities are using digital technologies to record Elders’ stories and observations, creating living archives of climate knowledge.
Integrating Elder wisdom with scientific climate data also presents both challenges and opportunities. Projects like the SIKU app, which combines Inuit knowledge with satellite imagery to track sea ice conditions, show the potential of blending traditional and modern approaches to climate monitoring.
The Wisdom of the Elders, A Guiding Light in Climate Action
As Canada grapples with the realities of climate change, the wisdom of Indigenous Elders shines as a beacon of hope and guidance. Their deep connection to the land, their long-term perspective, and their holistic understanding of ecosystems offer invaluable insights for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The involvement of Elders in climate initiatives does more than just inform strategies – it strengthens cultural resilience, empowers communities, and ensures that climate actions are rooted in respect for the land and future generations.
As we move forward in our collective fight against climate change, amplifying the voices of Indigenous Elders and heeding their wisdom will be crucial. Their teachings remind us that effective climate action is not just about technological solutions but about fostering a deeper, more respectful relationship with the Earth – a lesson that all Canadians, and indeed the world, would do well to embrace.
Blog by Rye Karonhiowanen Barberstock
(Header Image Credit: Getty Images, licensed under Unsplash)
The post The Role of Elders in Guiding Climate Change Mitigation: Wisdom from Canada’s First Nations appeared first on Indigenous Climate Hub.
The Role of Elders in Guiding Climate Change Mitigation: Wisdom from Canada’s First Nations
Discussing climate change can make a difference. Focusing on the impacts in everyday life is a good place to start, experts say.
When Bad Bunny climbed onto broken power lines during his Super Bowl halftime show, millions of viewers saw a spectacle. Climate communicators saw a lesson in how to talk about climate change.
Wondering How to Talk About Climate Change? Take a Lesson from Bad Bunny
Sydney, Thursday 19 March 2026 — In response to escalating attacks on gas fields in the Middle East, including Israeli strikes on Iran’s giant South Pars gas field and Iranian retaliations on gas fields in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the following lines can be attributed to Solaye Snider, Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific:
“The targeting of gas fields across the Middle East is a perilous escalation that reinforces just how vulnerable our fossil-fuelled world really is.
“Oil and gas have long been used as tools of power and coercion by authoritarian regimes. They cause climate chaos and environmental pollution and they drive conflict and war. The energy security of every nation still hooked on gas, including Australia, is under direct threat.
“For countries that are reliant on gas imports, like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and South Korea, this crisis is just getting started. It can take months to restart a gas export facility once it is shut down, meaning the shockwaves of these strikes will be felt for a long time to come.
“It is a gross and tragic injustice that while civilians are killed and lose their homes to this escalating violence, and families struggle with a tightening cost-of-living, gas giants like Woodside and Santos have seen their share prices surge on the prospect of windfall war profits.
“We must break this cycle. Transitioning to local renewable energy is the way to protect Australian households from the inherent volatility of fossil fuels like gas.”
-ENDS-
Images available for download via the Greenpeace Media Library
Media contact: Lucy Keller on 0491 135 308 or lkeller@greenpeace.org
Greenpeace response to escalating attacks on gas fields in Middle East
Climate Change
DeBriefed 20 March 2026: Energy crisis deepens | Brazil’s new climate plan | New Zealand climate case
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Iran war fallout continues
WORK FROM HOME: The International Energy Agency has advised its member countries to take 10 steps in response to the ongoing energy crisis fuelled by the Iran war, including reducing highway speeds and encouraging people to work from home, said the Guardian. It came after retaliatory attacks between Israel and Iran continued to destroy energy infrastructure in the Middle East, causing energy prices to soar further, said Reuters.
SUPPLY DISRUPTED: The IEA also said it is prepared to make more of its member nations’ 1.4bn-barrel oil reserves available to help ease the impacts of what it called the “biggest supply disruption in the history of the oil market”, reported Bloomberg. The outlet noted that Asian countries have been hit hardest by the shortages, caused by a “near-halt” of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
EU SUMMIT: The energy crisis dominated talks at an EU leaders summit on Thursday, said Politico. Arriving at the summit, Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez attacked other European leaders for using the energy crisis as an excuse to “gut climate policies”, according to the EU Observer. The Financial Times said that some European leaders have asked the European Commission to overhaul its flagship emissions trading system (ETS) by summer in response to the energy crisis.
COAL BOOST: In response to the conflict, utility companies in Asia are “boosting coal-fired power generation to cut costs and safeguard energy supply”, said Reuters. UN climate change executive secretary Simon Stiell told Reuters: “If there was ever a moment to accelerate that energy transition, breaking dependencies which have shackled economies, this is the time.”
Around the world
- WINDFARM WINDFALL: The Trump administration in the US is considering a nearly $1bn settlement with TotalEnergies to cancel the French energy company’s two planned windfarms off the US east coast and have it instead invest in fossil-gas infrastructure in Texas, according to documents seen by the New York Times.
- BUSINESS CLASH: Following “clashes” with the agribusiness sector, Brazil launched its new climate plan, which calls for a 49-58% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2022 levels by 2025 and includes “specific guidelines for different sectors”, reported Folha de Sao Paolo.
- SALES SLUMP: Sales of liquified petroleum gas from India’s state-run oil companies have fallen by 17% this month due to cuts in deliveries to commercial and industrial consumers “amid the widespread logistical bottlenecks triggered by the Iran war”, said the Economic Times.
- CUBAN ENERGY CRISIS: The US imposed an “effective oil blockade” on Cuba, leaving the country facing its “worst energy crisis in decades”, reported the Washington Post. Meanwhile, Chinese exports of solar panels to the island have “skyrocketed” since 2023, it added.
- RECORD HIGHS: An “unprecedented” heatwave in the western and south-western US is “shattering dozens of temperature records” and could lead to drought in California in the coming months, reported the Los Angeles Times.
- VULNERABILITY CONCERNS: Landslides that killed more than 100 people in southern Ethiopia have “renewed concerns about Ethiopia’s vulnerability to climate-related disasters”, said the Addis Standard.
1%
The percentage of England’s land surface that could be devoted to renewables by 2050, according to the long-awaited “land-use framework” released by the UK government this week and covered by Carbon Brief.
Latest climate research
- Approaching international climate action by shifting the burden of mitigation onto higher-income countries could avoid 13.5 million premature deaths from air pollution in middle- and lower-income countries by 2050 | The Lancet Global Health
- Beavers can turn the ecosystems surrounding streams into “persistent” sinks of carbon that can sequester an order of magnitude more than non-beaver-modified ecosystems can store | Communications Earth & Environment
- Mobile-phone data from seven diverse countries during the summer heatwaves of 2022-23 showed a “widespread tendency to withdraw into homes” and an increase in out-of-home activities that can offer cooling, such as indoor retail | Environmental Research: Climate
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
Carbon Brief this week published a significant update to its map of how climate change is affecting extreme weather events around the world. The map now includes 232 new extreme weather events from studies published in 2024 and 2025. Of these events, 196 were made more severe or more likely to occur by human-driven climate change, 12 were made less severe or less likely to occur and 10 had no discernible human influence. (The remaining 14 studies were inconclusive.)
Spotlight
New Zealand breaks new ground on climate litigation
This week, Carbon Brief speaks to experts about a first-of-its-kind climate lawsuit in New Zealand.
Earlier this week, representatives from two environmentally focused legal advocacy groups challenged the New Zealand government’s climate-action plan in court.
The plaintiffs argued that the measures laid out in the plan are insufficient to achieve the country’s legal obligation to hold global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures.
The case could be “influential” in shaping lawsuits and rulings around the world, one legal expert not involved in the case told Carbon Brief.
Reductions vs removals
The new case contends that there are several issues regarding the New Zealand government’s response to climate change.
One of the key arguments the plaintiffs make is that New Zealand’s second emissions reduction plan, which covers the period from 2026-30, is overreliant on the use of tree-planting to achieve its targets.
When the plan was released in December 2024, it was “immediately clear that it was a pretty lacklustre plan”, Eliza Prestidge Oldfield, senior legal researcher at the Environmental Law Initiative, one of the groups behind the legal case, told Carbon Brief.
The plan called for large-scale planting of pine tree plantations, which are not native to New Zealand and have a high risk of burning. Because of this, there are concerns about how permanent any carbon removal provided by these plantations actually can be, experts told Carbon Brief.
Catherine Higham, senior policy fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment who was not involved in the case, said:
“The lawyers are arguing that there are real challenges with equating the emissions that you may be able to remove from the atmosphere through afforestation with actual emissions reductions, which are much more certain.”
‘Global dialogue’
While other climate lawsuits elsewhere in the world have also focused on the inadequacy of a government’s plan to meet its stated emissions-reduction targets, this is the first such case that addresses the role of removals head-on.
Lucy Maxwell, co-director of the Climate Litigation Network, told Carbon Brief that the lawsuit “builds on a decade of climate litigation” in national, regional and international courts.
Maxwell, who was not involved in the New Zealand case, added that there is a “real global dialogue” between, not just plaintiffs, but national courts as well. She said:
“[National courts] look to common issues that have been decided in other countries. They’re not binding on that court if it’s at the national level, but they are influential.”
Given that many other countries have legal frameworks requiring their governments to create plans outlining the pathway to their long-term climate targets, Prestidge Oldfield told Carbon Brief that other jurisdictions “should be interested in these questions around the level of certainty”.
Higham noted that, even if the case is successful, addressing the plan’s shortfalls will face its own set of challenges. She told Carbon Brief:
“A lot of these decisions are political and they can be politically contentious…Those [measures] have to be put into action through legislation and that is then subject to the usual political process. So that’s where the challenge comes in.”
While she could not speculate on the outcome of the case, Prestidge Oldfield said it was “very heartening” to see that both the judge and the opposing counsel “appreciated how much of a concern climate change is globally”.
She added:
“It’s not a given that the judge would even be interested in climate change.”
Watch, read, listen
COMMON APPROACH: The Heated podcast analysed fossil-fuel advertisements and highlighted the most common deception tactics they employed.
THREAT ASSESSMENT: Mongabay mapped the potential threat that oil extraction poses to Venezuela’s ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforest and its coral reefs.
SALT LAKES? GREAT!: High Country News interviewed journalist Dr Caroline Tracey about her new book on saline lakes – such as Utah’s Great Salt Lake – the threats that face them and what they can teach us.
Coming up
- 23 March-2 April: Third meeting of the preparatory commission for the High Seas Treaty, New York
- 24-27 March: 64th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Bangkok
- 26-29 March: 14th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization, Yaoundé, Cameroon
Pick of the jobs
- International Centre of Research for the Environment and Development (CIRAD), IPCC chapter scientist | Salary: €3,200-3,750 per month. Location: Nogent-sur-Marne, France
- Avaaz, chief of staff | Salary: Dependent on location. Location: Remote, with preferred time zones
- Green Party, social media officer | Salary: £31,592-£32,192. Location: Remote or Westminster, UK
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 20 March 2026: Energy crisis deepens | Brazil’s new climate plan | New Zealand climate case appeared first on Carbon Brief.
-
Greenhouse Gases7 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Climate Change7 months ago
Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop
-
Greenhouse Gases2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change2 years ago
Bill Discounting Climate Change in Florida’s Energy Policy Awaits DeSantis’ Approval
-
Climate Change2 years ago嘉宾来稿：满足中国增长的用电需求 光伏加储能“比新建煤电更实惠”
-
Climate Change Videos2 years ago
The toxic gas flares fuelling Nigeria’s climate change – BBC News
-
Carbon Footprint2 years agoUS SEC’s Climate Disclosure Rules Spur Renewed Interest in Carbon Credits
-
Renewable Energy2 years ago
GAF Energy Completes Construction of Second Manufacturing Facility