Ensure proper use of research funding New resources and a national institute recommended for climate change research

A report on the state of federal climate change research is calling for $34 million over five years to help overcome serious deficiencies in Canada’s funding of “upstream” research that supports the country’s climate change objectives and obligations. Entitled Action Plan for Climate Science at MSC, it argues that increased, long-term funding for the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) is required for federal climate change science.

Produced by The Impact Group — the majority owner of RE$EARCH MONEY — the MSC report paints a bleak picture of Canada’s ability to allocate resources to combat climate change in a timely, cost-effective and properly informed fashion. The report notes that none of the recent funding announcements for climate change have addressed the need to bolster federal in-house resources — a situation that has not changed since it was released in June.

The lack of action is all the more bewildering since the Climate Change Plan for Canada indicates the need for more research in the areas of addressing climate model uncertainties, regional-scale climate change information, the role of Arctic sea ice in climate, and past climate variability and extremes. The result is a “significant gap between those who provide the fundamental scientific knowledge...and the decision makers or users of the knowledge within the federal government and the private sector”.

The report notes that the majority of $2 billion in climate change funding announced in the last Budget has been directed towards mitigation efforts and to help industry adapt to climate change regulations and impacts.

“Without reliable predictions the country could end up spending too much, or too little, at the wrong time , or in the wrong place, or on the wrong thing,” asserts the report. “Climate change research represents a form of “knowledge insurance” for a society - and a world - that are facing decades of costly expenditure and escalating socioeconomic dislocation.”

In addition to recommending new financial resources for MSC, the report also suggests that other measures be taken.

It calls for government to:

• adjust MSC’s research program so that it produces products suitable for use by policy makers and “downstream” stakeholders involved with mitigation, impacts and adaptation;
• collaboration with stakeholders and partners to “investigate the feasibility of establishing the National Institutes of Climate Science; and,
• make the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS) responsible for all federal obligations to fund university-based science research, in particular research being undertaken by the BIOCAP Canada Foundation.

If the above measures are accepted and implemented — in particular the call for a national institute — the report argues that much of the fragmentation now evident in Canada’s climate research could be eliminated. Most new funding for climate change research has been allocated to university-based researchers, with the majority flowing through the CFCAS.

Overall government funding supports the efforts of about 600 researchers with money flowing from several different research agencies. The report notes that university research is not suited to activities such as climate change computer modelling. As a result university researchers are not particularly interested in participating in those projects.

The MSC is a division of Environment Canada responsible for providing information and conducting research on climate, atmospheric science, air quality, ice and other environmental issues.

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