Skip to main content

Nunavut Climate Change Partnership

The Nunavut Climate Change Partnership (NCCP) was a collaborative partnership between the Government of Nunavut, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, and Natural Reosurces Canada to build capacity for community-level adaptation planning.

The Nunavut Climate Change Partnership (NCCP) was formed in 2008. Entitled "Atuliqtuq: Action and Adaptation in Nunavut" the Partnership’s three main themes are:

• To build capacity for climate change adaptation planning within the Government of Nunavut and communities

Building Capacity to Monitor the Risk of Climate Change on Water Quality and Human Health: A Two Year Journey Expanding Community-Based Leadership in Pond Inlet

A community project in Pond Inlet. We are a group of 3 young Mittimatalirmiut and we wish to research water quality and develop more skills in research! Access to healthy water is of paramount importance for Mittimatalirmiut. Water is important to keep us alive, sturdy and healthy; and bad water can be harmful for our people- our beloved elders, youth and infants. Water also an important cultural value to our people since many of us are going out on the land in order to provide our family with fresh water, just as our elders used to and they proudly taught us.

Water, mud, and bubbles: Impacts of permafrost degradation on greenhouse gas emissions from Arctic ponds and lakes

Carbon cycle dynamics in response to permafrost degradation is a ‘hot topic’ in northern research. We are particularly interested in greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4) emitted from ‘thermokarst’ aquatic ecosystems, i.e. ponds and lakes formed by the thawing of ice-rich permafrost. Such thawing results in the atmospheric release (as CO2 and CH4) of old carbon formerly trapped frozen in the ground.

Assessing Berries to Monitor Ecological Change: a collaboration with Nunavut Arctic College's Environmental Technology Program

Students of ETP have been contributing to a multidisciplinary study looking at vegetation response in a warming Arctic context, with a focus on berry ecology and productivity of 3 favourite species: Blueberry (Kigutangirnaq/Vaccinium uliginosum), Crowberry (Paurngaq/Empetrum nigrum) and Cranberry (Kimminaq/Vaccinium vitis-idaea). From 2009 to 2013 they have been collecting berries following a scientific protocol in a permanent monitoring plot near their fall camp location at Peterhead Inlet, near Iqaluit.

Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change (IHACC)

IHACC is a multi-year, trans-disciplinary, community-based initiative working with remote Indigenous populations in the Peruvian Amazon, Canadian Arctic and Uganda to examine vulnerabilities to the health effects of climate change and develop an evidentiary base for adaption.  In the Arctic, IHACC is working in the communities of Nunavut and Rigolet, Nunatsiavut.  In Iqaluit, the research has largely focused around issues of gastro-intestinal health, water, and food security.  As a whole, this work takes a participator research approach and aims to be engaged at all levels of

Foodborne and Waterborne Disease Mitigation: Community-based Surveillance for Environmental Health

Recent research uncovered the highest rates of self-reported enteric illness (i.e., diarrhea and vomiting) reported in the world to be in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and Rigolet, Nunatsiavut. Infectious diarrhea and vomiting can be caused by contaminated drinking water (i.e., waterborne disease), contaminated food (i.e., foodborne disease), or person-to- person contact. To reduce the high rates of diarrhea and vomiting in Northern Canada, we must monitor these pathogens causing illness to understand what pathogens are responsible for illness and how people contract the illness.