Montreal named secretariat for Future Earth research platform for global sustainability

Montreal has succeeded in its bid to become the global secretariat of Future Earth, a distributed research program dedicated to scientifically solving real-world problems of global sustainability. Spearheaded by Montreal International and Dr Remi Quirion, Quebec's chief scientist, Future Earth is comprised of five hubs — Montreal, Paris, Tokyo, Stockholm and Boulder CO.

The secretariat will be housed at the downtown campus of Concordia Univ, which is part of a Canadian consortium that includes the Univ of Montreal, McGill Univ, École de technologie supérieure, Polytechnique Canada, Ouranos (Consortium on Regional Climatology and Adaptation to Climate Change) and Fonds de recherche du Québec.

Politique nationale de la recherche et de l'innovation has committed $500,000 annually for five years to support the secretariat.

Gordon McBean, president of the International Council for Science, will co-chair the Future Earth governing council. Dr Paul Shivastava, until recently a professor emeritus and director of the David O'Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise at Concordia Univ, will be the secretariat's executive director.

Future Earth will launch global research initiatives in sustainable delivery of food, water, biodiversity, energy and materials and will promote economic and social changes leading to global sustainability.

The decision to make Montreal the global secretariat is a coup for Montreal International, whose mandate is to attract the headquarters of international organizations to the city (R$, January 24/14).

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