U of S-led Team Awarded $614,030 to Study Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Reduction
Posted September 23, 2003
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 23, 2003 2003-09-22-OTHER
U of S-led Team Awarded $614,030 to Study Impacts of Greenhouse Gas
Reduction
A University of Saskatchewan-led research team has received $614,030 over
three years to assess the environmental, legal, and economic impact of
potential greenhouse gas legislation on the lives of Canadians.
The nine-member national team, led by U of S agricultural economics
professor Murray Fulton, will also provide recommendations to assist policy
makers and industry groups in creating effective legislation to reduce
greenhouse gas levels.
The national network is funded through a joint venture between the BIOCAP
Canada Foundation and the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council (SSHRC). Specifically, the new network explores the human dimension
and policy implications of biosphere greenhouse gas management and bio-based
products.
"This new research partnership will contribute to policy recommendations
that will improve Canada's greenhouse gas management," said U of S
Vice-President Research Steven Franklin. "As well, the graduate training
that results from this study will foster a new generation of experts who
specialize in greenhouse gas reduction -- young minds who will bring fresh
ideas to this critical area of policy making and negotiation."
"If we are to address the growing concern of climate change, we need to
focus on our behavior and our daily activities," said SSHRC president Marc
Renaud. "This national network is focusing on the human dimensions of
greenhouse gas management. This research will also reveal how we all - as
producers and consumers -- can participate in reducing Canada's greenhouse
gas emissions."
"BIOCAP is very proud to be co-sponsoring this exciting initiative with
SSHRC," said BIOCAP CEO and research director David Layzell. "This type of
research network is critical to ensure that the new management strategies
and technologies being developed to address the challenges of climate change
are adequately assessed in terms of their human impact."
Greenhouse gases, which absorb the sun's energy and trap it in the Earth's
atmosphere like the glass of a greenhouse, have been implicated as a major
cause of climate change. By 2012, Canada has agreed to lower greenhouse
gases to six per cent below the 1990 level, but the government has yet to
establish policy on how this will be done.
"We are moving into a new era of regulation," said Fulton, director of the U
of S Centre for Studies in Agriculture, Law and the Environment (CSALE).
"Some of the issues we're going to examine are policies that may be put in
place and the cost to implement them."
Team members include U of S agricultural economics professors Hartley
Furtan, Richard Gray, Rose Olfert, Ken Belcher, and U of S assistant law
professor and a senior CSALE law fellow Patricia Farnese, as well as Alfons
Weersink of the University of Guelph, Grant Hauer of the University of
Alberta, and Kathy Baylis of the University of British Columbia.
Fulton says the team's first step will be to "think ahead to what a new
regulatory regime might look like and lay out the issues to be addressed."
For example, it's been suggested that Canada increase its forest area by
five million acres, which could potentially reduce greenhouse gases by more
than a third. That's because trees capture atmospheric carbon and store it
in their roots. But in a province such as Saskatchewan, such a move could
also result in a million acres of farmland being converted to forest.
"We need to look at how new policy will affect farmers," Fulton said. "If
farm land is turned into forest, it may impact the profitability of farming
and affect the decisions farmers make about what kinds of crops to plant. We
want to know what will happen to rural communities if this comes into play."
Fulton's team will also examine how policy is likely to evolve.
"Environmentalists, oil producers, and automobile manufacturers will all
influence the creation of policy," he notes.
He points out that after the 2012 Kyoto deadline, further reductions will
still be required. "Our work is long-term in nature, looking at the major
changes that have to occur in the next 25 to 50 years," he said.
CSALE (www.csale.usask.ca) examines pressing issues facing Prairie and
Canadian agriculture in the global marketplace and is a key location for
greenhouse gas research in Canada. It's an interdisciplinary U of S research
centre supported financially by the College of Law, the College of
Agriculture, and the Law Foundation of Saskatchewan.
The BIOCAP Canada Foundation (www.biocap.ca), a not-for-profit research
foundation, brings together the nation's leading researchers and
decision-makers to understand how Canada's biological systems, including
forests and farmlands, can help in the fight against climate change while
improving the environment and the economy.
SSHRC (www.sshrc.ca) is Canada's federal funding agency for university-based
research and graduate training in the social sciences and humanities.
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For more information, contact:
Murray Fulton
College of Agriculture
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-8507
Kathryn Warden
U of S Research Communications Officer
(306) 966-2506
kathryn.warden@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research
Doré Dunne
Media Relations Officer
(613) 992-7302
dore.dunne@sshrc.ca
Wendy McFarlane
Scientific Liaison
BIOCAP Canada Foundation
(613) 533-2315 Ext. 25
mcfarlanew@biocap.ca
