University of Victoria Researchers Help Author Canada's Changing Climate Report 2026

More than two dozen researchers at the University of Victoria (UVic) contributed to Canada's Changing Climate Report 2026, the country's most comprehensive assessment of how climate change is affecting communities, ecosystems and coastlines. The report concludes that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are driving widespread, interconnected changes across Canada, including extreme heat, longer wildfire seasons, shrinking snow and ice, warming oceans and rising sea levels. It updates a 2019 report that has served as the country's authoritative climate resource.

Xuebin Zhang, director of UVic's Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC), served on the report's steering committee and science advisory committee. "PCIC's scientific capacity and our world-caliber services have added both data and analysis to this report," Zhang said. "Our rigorous physical science has provided detailed assessments of past and future changes in Canadian climate, including temperature, flood, drought and fire."

Roberta Hamme, director of UVic's School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, was a coordinating lead author on the report's oceans chapter. The report finds Canada's oceans have warmed and become more acidic from excess carbon dioxide, with marine heat waves growing more frequent and intense. "The oceans perform a great service to humanity by absorbing about 90% of the excess heat and 25% of the excess carbon dioxide, which slows the rate of climate change," Hamme said. "But higher temperatures and more acidic waters affect which plants and animals can thrive there, and rising sea levels affect our coastal communities."

Francis Zwiers, scientist emeritus and former PCIC director, was coordinating lead author on the chapter tracking Canada's climate over time. The analysis found British Columbia's changes are similar to most of Canada, while Canada's North is warming much faster than elsewhere and receiving more precipitation. "We have been able to estimate how much Canada has warmed, not just since broad national observations began in 1948 but since the 1850-1900 preindustrial period," Zwiers said, crediting PCIC postdoctoral fellow Tong Li's methods for combining historical observations with climate models.

The report's findings are intended to support decision-making at every level, from municipal infrastructure planning and emergency management to Indigenous-led climate adaptation, water management, coastal resilience and building-code updates.