OTTAWA - Even as a UN report calls for better research on adaptation to climate change, Canada's most important funding agency for climate research says it has run out of money.
Gordon McBean, chair of the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences, says he can't even arrange a meeting with Environment Minister John Baird to discuss the situation.
Research already under way will be completed, said McBean, but no new projects can be taken on despite many good proposals.
"On an issue which is seen as the major global issue, to say that we don't need any more science seems to me an ill-founded statement," said McBean, interviewed at a briefing on the latest climate study from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
He said Canada cannot depend on research done in other countries. "Our public policy decisions should be based on the best possible science as seen and done in Canada."
The UN study, whose main elements have been reported over the last two weeks, says countries must focus not only on curbing greenhouse emissions, but also on preparing for impacts that cannot be avoided, which is referred to as adaptation.
"The vulnerability of North America depends on the effectiveness and timing of adaptation and the distribution of coping capacity," says the report.
"There is a need for improved understanding of the relationship between changes in average climate and those extreme events with the greatest potential impact on North America, including hurricanes, other severe storms, heat waves, floods and prolonged droughts."
It says North America's aging infrastructure and aging population will compound the effects of global warming.
"Without increased investments in countermeasures, hot temperature and extreme weather are likely to cause increased adverse health impacts from heat-related mortality, pollution, storm-related fatalities and injuries and infectious diseases."
Yet scientists told the briefing that Canada has no national adaptation strategy.
"Until now adaptation has been a neglected option in this picture," said Ian Burton, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.
No comment could be obtained from Baird's office Tuesday. He did issue a statement in response to the UN report last week but it contained no reference to adaptation.
"Canada's new government is serious about tackling climate change and protecting the air we breathe for Canadians today and for the future," he said.
The UN report gave examples of climate impacts already seen in North America.
For example, snow melt has declined 15 to 30 per cent in the Western mountains since 1950 and many bird and animal species have shifted their ranges north or to higher elevations.
In Canada, the area burned by forest fires has exceeded 60,000 square kilometers three times since 1990, twice the long-term average. The infestation of mountain pine beetle continues to expand into areas which used to be too cold for the insects.
Cold-water fisheries - including salmon - are in decline, the report added.
The breaching of a dike in Delta, B.C., last year and the flooding of New Orleans in 2005 demonstrate vulnerability to increased storm surges.
