The Arctic Report Card will survive 2026 without NOAA, but what comes next?
The Arctic Report Card will be released this year without support from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), but what happens to the annual assessment after 2026 is still up in the air, one of its editors said.
“Because of the timing of the NOAA withdrawal, well into the 2026 production cycle, almost all our efforts have been focused on finding a path to get the 2026 Report Card out in a timely manner, one of the big strengths of the [Arctic Report Card],” Rick Thoman said in an email exchange.
“So we editors (none of us are NOAA employees) have not had a chance to talk about 2027 and beyond, though many folks have offered ideas.”
The Arctic Report Card is a peer-reviewed annual report that pulls together observations from across the circumpolar North, including Canada, to show how environmental changes are playing out across the region. First published in 2006, it was supported by NOAA, the U.S. agency responsible for weather, climate and ocean science.
In recent years, around 100 authors from about a dozen countries have contributed to the report card.
And since 2019, essays on Indigenous monitoring and environment restoration from places like Clyde River, Nunavut and Sámi areas in northern Europe have also been included.
The Trump administration’s withdrawal of support for the report card was first reported by Politico on Aug. 10.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) said its scientists have contributed to the report’s terrestrial snow chapter since 2008, but didn’t have details on plans for the assessment beyond 2026.
“ECCC contributors were informed of NOAA’s decision to end support for the Arctic Report Card,” the department said in an email. “As a foreign-led report, the department does not have any additional information to provide about the future of the report.”
2026 Report Card to be released in December
Thoman, who is also an Arctic expert with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, said the report is expected to be released, as usual, at the American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting in December.
But a new, non-NOAA website to host the report has not yet been finalized, he added.
Thoman said it hasn’t yet been determined how to move forward after 2026.
“But [the situation ] does present an opportunity to broaden the participation while maintaining the strengths that have been built up since the first Report Card in 2006,” he said.
Comments, tips or story ideas? Contact Eilís at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Record warmth, regional contrasts, mark 2025 in Canada’s Arctic: report, Eye on the Arctic
Denmark: Resource extraction projects, dwindling sea ice power Arctic shipping surge, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Unusually balmy June comes on tail of Finland’s record spring warmth, Eye on the Arctic
Greenland: Arctic sea ice hit twice as hard when storms arrive in clusters: study, Eye on the Arctic
Norway: Weather above normal for 18 consecutive months, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Swedish glaciers are still melting — but by less than last year, Radio Sweden
