Canadian climate risk needs to be researched, panel says

A panel of senior Canadian climate change experts, chaired by Dr. Gordon McBean of the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, called on the federal government to increase funding for research on the impact of global warming.

“We need to factor climate risks into every area it is relevant,” Ian Burton, an international expert on natural hazards management and a member of the five-person panel, told the CBC.

Burton said Canada needs to invest now in buildings and infrastructure such as drainage systems and bridges to help offset the effects of climate change, particularly coastal storms and hurricanes, the CBC reported.

“These are investments that… have to last 50 years, so we need to start now,” Burton added.

In addition to McBean and Burton, the panel included Paul Kovacs, founder and executive director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), as well as Don Forbes, senior research scientist with Natural Resources Canada, and Chris Furgal, a researcher specializing in the health and human impacts of climate change in Arctic communities.

Panelists stressed the need for policy research. “It has been a largely neglected option,” said McBean, who was quoted by CanWest News Service.