Yukon

The diesel and hydroelectric generators built for industry in Canada's North are expensive and aging, write Lynne Couves and Rosa Brown in Policy Options. Repair and improvement can’t be the sole burden of communities.

Ancient bedrock exposed by disappearing permafrost is releasing toxic metals into Canada's northern rivers, a new study says, with once-pristine subarctic streams now comparable in some cases to highly acidic, contaminated mining sites.

Northern and Alberta communities are harnessing energy efficiency upgrades—from biomass boilers to heat-recovery systems to solar panels—that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy costs, and build local expertise in low-carbon technologies.

The Yukon and British Columbia governments have agreed to jointly plan a transmission line connecting their power grids, with project costs in the billions and a timeline of over a decade. A local management consultant says there may be better ways to meet the territory’s electricity needs.

Poor planning, funding shortages, and plans to build new critical mineral mines are imperilling Yukon’s plan to reduce emissions 45% by 2030, even as the territory’s climate leadership council maps out a pathway to success.

A company based in Watson Lake, Yukon has developed a portable solar+storage system with foldable panels to serve extremely cold remote locations.

“You’re going to die of old age. We’re going to die of climate change,” chanted a group of Whitehorse, Yukon, high school students who gathered on Earth Day to protest the failure of way too many adults to take the climate crisis seriously.

The town of Old Crow, Yukon will get to shut off its noisy, polluting diesel generators for the first time in 50 years, after the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation’s new solar farm reaches full capacity in July.

The Yukon government’s new climate plan has been seriously weakened by its decision to create tiered emissions targets for its mining industry, rather demanding the sector rein in its emissions directly, say local environmental advocates.