Welcome and Opening Remarks

Monique Carpentier, Acting Director General of the Earth Sciences Sector’s Policy and Coordination Branch, Natural Resources Canada

On behalf of Natural Resources Canada, I’d like to welcome you to “Adapting to Climate Change in Canada 2005.”

The theme “Understanding Risks and Building Capacity” is particularly apt. You have built a strong foundation of knowledge that allows us to understand the risks (and opportunities) we face and you have built capacity to answer the wide range of questions that will face us as we prepare to adapt.

Since 2001, the Government of Canada has provided $37.5 million through the Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Program to: address critical gaps in our knowledge about impacts and adaptation, establish a national research network (C-CIARN) to better connect researchers and stakeholders, and to build capacity to address this issue in Canada. This is in addition to the core funding in federal departments that has long supported this field of research.

Enhanced federal funding for the granting councils, Canada Research Chairs and research networks have all strengthened our capacity for research in the academic sector and there has been growing application of your expertise to this issue.

Provinces have played a role as well with funding for new initiatives such as Ouranos here in Quebec, the Manitoba Climate Change Fund, the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative, ClimAdapt in Nova Scotia, as well as the contributions made by provincial researchers.

Add in the investment of time, energy, and intellectual capital of researchers, decision-makers, community members and countless others and you can see why the foundation for adaptation policy has strengthened considerably over the past 5 years. I congratulate all of you for the advances you have made.

We recognize that adaptation to climate change is important to Canadians and we are committed to addressing it as part of Canada’s response to climate change. Our changing climate presents us with complex challenges. In reviewing the abstract book, I was struck by the diversity of issues that will face us as we deal with climate change. This diversity reflects that of our environment, our economy and our society. All of these will need to be taken into account in our response.

Some people suggest that we need to “wait for more research”before taking action. While I would not argue with the continued need for research, preparing to adapt to climate change is not just an issue for the future. Many of today’s decisions and investments will last long into the future so we need to make sure they are sustainable as climate changes; to ensure that we are increasing resilience and reducing vulnerability.

We are working with closely with other governments to develop a long-term approach to responding to climate change. In 2002, federal, provincial and territorial Ministers of Environment and Energy agreed to flesh out a national adaptation framework to guide intergovernmental collaboration. This work will be completed soon, setting the stage for more detailed planning between governments.

We are also working closely with our federal colleagues from 20 departments and agencies to develop a risk-based, federal adaptation strategy to guide the work of federal departments. We also will need to work closely with many of you to address the issue.

This issue will cross boundaries between regions, sectors, and generations. The complexity will require that - governments, communities, businesses, professional organizations work together in a sustained, long-term effort.

Again, I congratulate you on the progress you have made and I look forward to learning more from all of you over the next three days.

2005-04-05