Artikkelit
12.06.2024
Sari Tojkander: Canada´s Scientific Strategy for Sustainable Future
The government of Canada is dedicated to addressing global challenges through scientific breakthroughs. Recent investments in future talent, infrastructure and increased funding through national councils show its efforts for strengthening research excellence, innovation activities and commitment to science-based decision-making. Several strategies have also been setup for insuring the ethical implementation and guidelines on long-term scientific agendas. One of the strategies that Canada has setup for battling climate change and adaptation to its impacts is “The Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) 2024–2029 Science Strategy” plan. This strategy was developed and reviewed by several government agencies, offices, and their branches in collaboration with various experts on the field. The current Science Strategy establishes a fresh view for ECCC's scientific attemps to support a wide range of approaches in tackling climate change. It also highlights the importance of both national and international partnerships in the future activities.
Current efforts for Canadian research excellence
Canada´s government has recently invested a lot in research, innovation and in supporting the talent - this is evident from the current budget for 2024. Canada is clearly prioritizing the next generation of researchers, improving the affordable housing situation and financing students in the form of various scholarships and fellowships. The talent of future scientists is also supported by new AI Compute Access Fund as well as by launching of a safety institute that is dedicated to giving ethical instructions in AI technologies. Expanded funding possibilities are additionally available through Canada’s Tri-Agencies, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Furthermore, a new capstone research funding institution was established to foster strong collaboration within the federal research landscape. On top of everything, investments in cutting-edge infrastructure have been made across the Canada.
Alongside with the investments in talent and state-of the art infrastructure, a set of scientific strategies and plans have been made by various councils and government departments. In light of the rapidly changing climate, one of the most important recent strategies was made by the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), a department of the Government of Canada, which revised its science plan from 2014 to better respond the future challenges. The 2024–2029 Science Strategy takes into account the urgent environmental issues from various angles and sets a new vision for ECCC's scientific plans to address unavoidable environmental changes.
Focus areas in Canada´s Environment and Climate Change science strategy
Environment and Climate Change Canada plays a crucial role in protecting Canada's unique nature. Already since 1971, Environment Canada has relied on scientific data in addressing environmental challenges. The new ECCC Science Strategy for years 2024-29 presents a new vision for ECCC science, and was created with input from the ECCC personnel, federal departments and science-based agencies. With this plan, Canada aims in strengthening its ability to respond to the key future challenges and emerging environmental issues. Scientific insights are in an increasingly important role in decision-making, policies and in aligning the existing climate actions. A renewed Science Council, comprising science experts/researchers will also be serving as an advisory board to setup research priorities and goals.
In the current strategy, ECCC is focusing for example on the following, partly interconnecting areas in the implementation of its plan: Improving the capability of predicting weather, its extreme events and changing environmental conditions by using advanced modeling systems and programs for example for long-term weather forecasting; Emphasizing research related to the Arctic region by applying earth surface observation methods and satellite data together with modeling; Improving the methods linked to quantification and studying of greenhouse gases in order to provide more accurate estimations, projections as well as reporting on emissions and the dynamics of the carbon cycle. This is directly linked to the aims for meeting the net-zero emission goal by 2050; Putting new efforts for managing natural ecosystems: Conservation, restoration, and sustainable management to enhance their resilience. This also includes scientific research to comprehensively understand wildlife behavior; Developing scientific intervention methods to manage/prevent the harmful impacts of environmental pollution; Exploring the possibilities in climate-altering technologies within Canada as well as Implementing novel methods for monitoring the environment across ecosystems for deeper understanding of any shifts; Developing and refining tools to assess and understand cumulative effects on the biophysical environment, and improving the approaches for evaluating cumulative effects on biodiversity, human health, and communities resulting from various human activities.; Supporting effective management of water resources by monitoring and analyzing water quantity, quality, and the health of the aquatic ecosystems.
To achieve the goals, Canada is utilizing a lot of forefront solutions and investing in the development of new methodology. Many of the ongoing and future projects involve satellites and earth observation: Earth-orbiting satellites are having accurate remote-sensing technologies that monitor changes in the atmosphere, land and seas as well as ice. Ongoing missions expand the understanding of global changes and ECCC is actually the largests federal user of this earth observation data. In the future, even more such missions are initiated and they concentrate for instance on wildfires, which are an increasingly expanding problem worldwide but especially in Canada. Additionally, missions related to cloud formation and high-altitude aerosols, freshwater resources and arctic observation are topics that will play a critical role in the ECCC´s future actions. As Canada is a member of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, this data is also openly available and benefits scientific community worldwide. ECCC is also supporting open science for enhancing communication on the topic, for avoiding misinformation, and for promoting public trust in science.
National and International cooperation in a central role in ECCC´s climate strategy
ECCC´s wide set of actions to battle climate change have made an impact on Canada´s legislation and contributed to many new initiatives. The approaches of the agenda also support Canada's international commitments, such as the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. In addition, ECCC is involved in several international organizations and global commitments aiming to carbon neutrality.
In its actions, ECCC has committed to open data and fostering new collaborations – both with national and international partners. In addition, integration of Indigenous science into its practices has been one of its priorities. Collaborations with diverse partners are essential for advancing scientifically challenging tasks and in reaching the goals. On national level, ECCC is actively collaborating with university researchers, providing support and fostering new partnerships that contribute to the governmental aims. ECCC´s own scientists maintain active connections with the local universities through shared projects and labs, professorships, shared infrastructure, and joint science communication networks. Canada´s high-level research environment and climate actions draw also international partners and along the recent association of Canada to Horizon Europe funding program, even more collaborations on international level are likely to take place.
Text and photo Sari Tojkander, Councellor for Science and Higher Education, Los Angeles
References:
• https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2024/04/19/strengthening-canadian-research-and-innovation
• https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2024/05/government-of-canada-supports-leading-research-infrastructure-across-canada.html
• https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/science-technology/science-strategy/2024-2029.html
• https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2024/eccc/en4/En4-76-1-2024-eng.pdf
• https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2024/03/government-of-canada-invests-in-7700-world-class-researchers-and-projects-across-the-country.html
• https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change.html