Government departments like, Environment and Climate Change Canada [ECCC] (2022), are responsible for “inform[ing] Canadians about protecting and conserving our natural heritage, and ensuring a clean, safe and sustainable environment for present and future generations.” As such, the Government of Canada publishes current Canadian climate change science, research and data for the public on their Environment and Natural Resources webpage.
Why is government climate data important?
Climate Change Policy Analysts, Kyra Bell-Pasht and Dana Krechowicz (2015), argue that “[b]oth private and public sector decision-makers need accessible, credible and relevant climate information to increase resilience to the more intense and frequent weather extremes scientists foresee as a potential consequence of climate change.”
Governments have a responsibility for ensuring their communities’ resilience to “climate variability and change and that both their public and private sectors have access to the information they need to adapt” (Bell-Pasht & Krechowicz, 2015).
What are some examples of federally published open access information?
- Climate Trends and Variations Bulletin (CTVB): The CTVB “summarizes recent climate data and presents it in a historical context. It first examines the national average temperature for the season and then highlights interesting regional temperature information” (ECCC, Spring 2022).
- Monthly Climate Summaries: Available to download, the summaries contain “values of various climatic parameters, including monthly averages and extremes of temperature, precipitation amounts, degree days, and sunshine hours” (Government of Canada, 2022)
- Canada’s Climate Plan: The services and information linked in this plan include “net-zero emissions by 2050, carbon pollution pricing, climate change adaptation and resilience, clean technology and jobs, expert engagement of climate change” and more (Government of Canada, 2022).
What is an example of provincially published climate data?
- Climate Change in Alberta: Published by the Government of Alberta, this page includes the causes and impacts of climate change, and data on Alberta’s current emissions.
Written by Brianna Sorensen, CUE Library Services Assistant.
References
Bell-Pasht, K. and Krechowicz, D. (2015). Why does access to good climate data matter? World Meteorological Organization. https://public.wmo.int/en/resources/bulletin/why-does-access-good-climate-data-matter
Environment and Climate Change Canada. (2022). Climate trends and variations bulletin. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/eccc/documents/pdf/climate-change/trends-variations/spring2022/ClimateTrendsandVariations-Bulletins-Spring2022-EN.pdf
Government of Canada (2022). Environment and climate change Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change.html