National Action Plan on Open Government Commitment

C01.1.2 - Climate Change and Sustainable Growth

Commitment:: Climate Change and Sustainable Growth
Milestone:: Through the Open Science and Data Platform make information related to cumulative effects, including climate change and sustainable growth, easier for people in Canada to find and understand
Indicator:: C01.1.2 - Provide accessible science-based educational content on 10 key topics (air, biodiversity, climate, cumulative effects, development activities, economy and industry, health, land, society and culture, and water), which may be supported by interactive maps
Lead Organization:: Natural Resources Canada
Deadline:: By 2023
Summit for Democracy:: No

Updates

2024-12

Status:

Complete

Evidence of progress:

Over the course of the NAP 2022-24 period, the OSDP has published 10 science-based educational content pages to facilitate understanding among users, especially members of the general public, including on the key topics of: air, biodiversity, climate, health, land, water, economy and industry, society and culture, cumulative effects in general, and management of cumulative effects. The general cumulative effects page features the Government of Canada Interim Message on Cumulative Effects and a video from Environment and Climate Change Canada showing a visual description of cumulative effects using water quality as an example. These pages serve to educate Canadians on the importance and complexities of cumulative effects. Additionally, we added a page entitled “Learn About Development Activities” to support understanding of potential cumulative impacts caused by these activities, such as the clearing of land that can impact wildlife’s ability to use and access habitat and also result in pollution that could impact air or water quality. This page also provides direct access to data and information related to key industries including agriculture, energy, mining, forestry, fisheries, and transportation to further support understanding of cumulative effects related to these activities. In the most recent update, we added a page describing the curated content collections focused on regions of interest and topics related to the human and natural environment, such as biodiversity, air, water, and climate, among others. Content collections are created through a collaborative process with subject matter experts in accordance with pre-determined relevancy criteria. In other words, individual datasets and publications are identified from the Platform’s catalogue where they are relevant both from a geographic and topical standpoint. The collections provide a starting point to understanding cumulative effects in regions of interest by providing access to a curated suite of data and information.
We are committed to reviewing and updating educational pages on a regular basis to ensure we highlight the most recent datasets and most relevant topics, ensuring that information related to cumulative effects, including climate change and sustainable growth, are easier for people in Canada to find and understand.

Evidence:

Challenges:

Updating static pages requires significant amount of effort and collaboration with partner federal departments that provide the relevant data and expertise. For example, the development and updates to the health page required close collaboration with Health Canada to ensure messaging was current and accurate with regard to the complex cumulative effects considerations related to health.

2023-12

Status:

Complete

Evidence of progress:

While this milestone was completed last quarter, static content has been enhanced as part of the November update (Release 8) of OSDP via the Learn about Development Activities page. Each of the six development activities – Agriculture, Energy, Fisheries, Forestry, Mining, and Transportation – now feature a curated search with relevant datasets. By clicking on a development activity, users are redirected to the explore page where relevant datasets are pre-loaded to the map viewer.

Evidence:

2023-09

Status:

Complete

Evidence of progress:

While this milestone was completed last quarter, static content has been enhanced as part of Release 8 via the Learn about Development Activities page. Each of the six development activities – Agriculture, Energy, Fisheries, Forestry, Mining, and Transportation – now feature a curated search with relevant datasets. By clicking on a development activity, users are redirected to the explore page where relevant datasets are pre-loaded to the map viewer.

Evidence:

2023-06

Status:

Complete

Evidence of progress:

Completed 2023-03.

2023-03

Status:

Complete

Evidence of progress:

As a part of Release 7, six enhanced static content pages – Learn about Cumulative Effects; Cumulative Effects Assessment, Monitoring, and Management; Air; Biodiversity; Climate; and Water – were updated.

These themed Cumulative Effects pages – Air, Biodiversity, Climate, and Water – were each enhanced to include updated narrative describing each topic as it relates to cumulative effects, as well as an embedded interactive map showing key datasets on each page to further educate the user on information relevant to the topic.

The Learn about Cumulative Effects page feature the Government of Canada Interim Message on Cumulative Effects and a video from Environment and Climate Change Canada showing a visual description of cumulative effects using water quality as an example. These pages serve to educate Canadians on the importance and complexities of cumulative effects.

Evidence:

Learn about Cumulative Effects

What are cumulative effects? Video by Environment and Climate Change Canada

Cumulative Effects Assessment and Management

2022-12

Status:

Substantial progress

Evidence of progress:

Preparation for Release 7 of the Open Science and Data Platform continued through last quarter with a focus of ensuring all new content that was ready for public launch of Release 7 January 17, 2023, including the six new static content pages. Throughout last quarter, the six static content pages – Learn about Cumulative Effects; Cumulative Effects Assessment, Monitoring, and Management; Air; Biodiversity; Climate; and Water – were translated to French and reviewed. These themed Cumulative Effects pages – Air, Biodiversity, Climate, and Water – were each enhanced to include updated messaging describing each topic as it relates to Cumulative Effects, as well as an embedded interactive map showing key datasets on each page to further educate the user on information relevant to that Valued Component topic accessible through the OSDP. The Learn about Cumulative Effects page was enhanced to feature the new What Are Cumulative Effects? video from Environment and Climate Change Canada, as well as linking to the Government of Canada Interim Message on Cumulative Effects. These pages serve to educate Canadians on the importance and complexities of Cumulative Effects.

Evidence:

What are cumulative effects? Video by Environment and Climate Change Canada

Cumulative Effects Assessment and Management

2022-09

Status:

Substantial progress

Evidence of progress:

At the time of public launch in March 2021, the Open Science and Data Platform provided access to science based educational content on six key topics relevant to cumulative effects, climate change and sustainable growth, including air, water, biodiversity, climate, human health, and cumulative effects. Since that time, an additional four pages were developed and published on other relevant topics including land, economy and industry, development activities and society and culture. These educational pages include information about key facts and concepts and provide tools to render data and information more accessible. For example, each page features an interactive map viewer to visualize highly relevant data and an automated search tool to assist discovery of content, including scientific publications, relevant to the topic. Recent updates include publishing of the Society and Culture page in January 2022 which features information about Indigenous Peoples and language and enhancements to the Health page in May 2022 to highlight newly onboarded Health Canada data, including Environmental Radiation Monitoring data. The originally developed pages – including climate change, water, air, and biodiversity – were identified in summer 2022 as needing updates to reflect newly available data and more relevant and current information. Enhancements to these evergreen pages will continue over time during the next quarter to ensure the most current information and science is made openly accessible with the goal to inform, inspire, and motivate the user to further explore the Platform to inform their understanding, research or projects.

Enhancements to static content have been ongoing throughout August and September 2022. Working collaboratively with ECCC and subject matter experts, static pages have been revised to reflect available OSDP data and current state of knowledge government messaging. Pages revised include Learn about Cumulative Effects landing page and the linked Cumulative Effects Assessment Monitoring and Management page, as well as the static pages for Air, Biodiversity, Climate, and Water. Each of the cumulative effects topics pages (i.e., Air, Biodiversity, Climate and Water) will also feature curated interactive map products featuring relevant datasets to their respective topics to provide users more opportunities to interact and engage with OSDP data. Final approvals for the revised pages will be sought in October to ensure deadlines are met for the pages to be publicly accessible by January 2023, as part of the next release of OSDP.

Evidence:

Development Activities

Society and Culture

Health

Learn About Cumulative Effects