How UVic researchers help Canada understand a changing climate
September 03, 2026
More than two dozen University of Victoria researchers contributed to Canada’s Changing Climate Report 2026, the country’s most comprehensive assessment of how climate change is impacting communities, ecosystems and coastlines across Canada.
The report concludes that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are driving widespread and interconnected changes across the country, including extreme heat, longer wildfire seasons, shrinking snow and ice, warming oceans and rising sea levels.
UVic researchers help assess climate trends and future risks
Among the UVic contributors are Xuebin Zhang, director of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC), who served on the report’s steering committee and the science advisory committee. Roberta Hamme, director of UVic’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, and Francis Zwiers, scientist emeritus and former director of PCIC, are co-ordinating lead authors on the chapters on oceans and climate changes over time, respectively.
“PCIC’s scientific capacity and our world-calibre services have added both data and analysis to this report. Our rigorous physical science has provided detailed assessments of past and future changes in Canadian climate including temperature, flood, drought and fire,” says Zhang, director of the UVic-based PCIC.
"This report is the most up-to-date assessment of how Canada’s climate is changing and why and how it is expected to change in the future. The regional data and analysis provided by our researchers offer information that is relevant to regional and local decision makers, helping them understand the risks they face and prepare for future changes.”
Ocean warming is affecting Canada's coastal environments
Hamme contributed expertise on changing ocean conditions. The report finds that Canada’s oceans have warmed and become more acidic because of excess carbon dioxide from human activities. Marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense, with impacts on marine ecosystems and coastal communities.
"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 says. “But higher temperatures and more acidic waters affect which plants and animals can thrive there, rising sea levels affect our coastal communities and more frequent and intense events are harder to recover from. This report lays out in plain language how Canada is changing and what we can expect for the future depending on the choices we make.”
Tracking how Canada's climate has changed over time
Francis Zwiers is a co-ordinating lead author of the chapter that provides an overall synthesis of observed changes in Canada’s climate, detailed assessments of the temperature and precipitation changes and the role that human influence on the climate has played in those changes. The analysis found that BC, which is PCIC’s primary focus, has similar changes to those in most of Canada. Like other Arctic regions of the world, Canada’s North is warming much more quickly than elsewhere, and it is also receiving more precipitation, consistent with theoretical expectations of change in a warming world.
"In this report, we have been able to estimate how much Canada has warmed, not just since broad national coverage of observations became available in 1948 but since the 1850-1900 preindustrial period," says Zwiers. "This was achieved, despite Canada having only a smattering of meteorological observing stations prior to 1900, thanks to PCIC postdoctoral fellow Tong Li, who developed sophisticated ways of combining available observations with results from climate models.”
Climate science supports adaptation and resilience planning
The national assessment is an update to the 2019 report that has served as the authoritative resource for information about Canada’s changing climate. Ultimately, its findings support decision making and adaptive planning at all levels, from municipal infrastructure planning and emergency management to Indigenous-led climate adaptation initiatives, water management, coastal resilience and updates to building codes.
Researchers across UVic contribute internationally recognized expertise in climate modelling, ocean science, renewable energy systems, water security, conservation, public policy and climate adaptation. Through 12 research centres and other programs, UVic researchers help communities, governments and industries plan for and respond to climate and environmental change.