Environment committee  Vellacott or Mr. Calkins mentioned, allows the issue of what the government's doing with respect to climate change to go to the to-and-fro of the political moment. Other things get attention. The accountability on something like emissions reduction, which is difficult to do, is not very strong.

Environment committee  Is it up to me to answer? I can start. I have always held that you can't buy your way out of the climate change problem. It's not going to be enough. Money will certainly be required to develop the new technologies and to put in subsidies and incentives to get people to take them up, but I don't think you can solve this problem simply by pouring money into it.

Environment committee  I remember one person from Quebec who gave us very good evidence that a real investment in infrastructure and transportation would mitigate the effect of climate change. I know it's not enough, but this government has moved forward with an unprecedented amount of $33 billion to invest in infrastructure over the next seven years, because of the $126 billion that we've been left with in infrastructure deficits from the prior Liberal government.

Environment committee  I'm particularly sensitive to the matter of agriculture since I'm responsible for it within my party. I've read an enormous number of doomsday scenarios attributable to climate change. Global warming is a proven fact. So when we read these scenarios, we feel that Quebec and Canadian agriculture might have to face catastrophic situations. For example, there could be more hours of sunshine, but more rain and parasites.

Environment committee  The Chinese are very concerned because of water availability. They understand the threats to them from climate change and they're making some changes--and the Indians, likewise, because of energy security. My sense, just listening and reading around, and talking to colleagues in those parts of the world, is that increasingly more and more countries are saying yes, we need to be on board, we need to do something.

Environment committee  Adaptation is saying we have a problem: there are going to be these changes to water flows, or to shorelines, and we have to adapt so that we can continue living, and so on, with the effects of climate change. But is there a point at which adaptation and conservation intersect? Do you understand what I'm getting at?

Environment committee  John very eloquently put the two pieces together. Adaptation is a necessary requirement. We have climate change in store as we try to adjust climate to the emissions we've already created. No matter what we do, we have climate in store. It will change the statistics of weather or climate down the road.

Environment committee  Now, if one wants to look at vulnerabilities, that's what it all comes down to. Mr. Warawa mentioned risk management—and climate change is the quintessential risk-management issue. If you look at vulnerabilities, those are very place-specific. It depends on the particular exposure. It depends on the particular sensitivity of the system and of the adaptive capacity.

Environment committee  Some of the questions being raised by those municipalities, particularly those on the coasts or living in the far north, were around their ability to understand what needs to be done in terms of adapting their planning and their infrastructure to a climate change reality.

Environment committee  As a government we strongly agree and recognize that this is a tremendous issue we need to deal with, not only here in Canada, but globally. The second chapter was on causals; the third, on projected climate change and its impacts; the fourth, on adaptation and mitigation measures. I want to go to Dr. Weaver. I'm from British Columbia

Environment committee  You've done some of this already, but can you give an assessment of the basic funding available for Canada in understanding the implications of climate change to our economy? What research have you seen done? What support have you seen from the federal government to understand a critical question like this?

Environment committee  It was a very young organization that was just getting going, and their goal was to look specifically at this question--to look at the impacts of climate change, assess the vulnerabilities of communities, and define methods of adaptation. Historically the impacts in adaptation follow the science. That is one of the reasons it was such a young community: the assessments they were doing were based on earlier models, earlier reproductions, when the state of the science was still emerging in terms of the representation of some of the physical processes.

Environment committee  My hope is that with the fourth assessment we've been able to put a line under the scientific debate about whether climate change is real or not. I think we have to move from science that's been useful in defining the problem to science that's going to be useful in defining the solutions. This doesn't mean to say that we have done all the science necessary, and there are many reasons for that.

Environment committee  Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee is commencing its study of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report. We have a number of witnesses before us, as well as a witness by teleconference. From Carleton University, we have someone familiar to us, Dr. Stone. Dr. Stone will be making a presentation of some 20 minutes.

Environment committee  We have a plan that we believe very strongly will have achievable results that will deal with the issue of climate change. You've gone into the next paragraph for the final word. You've said that reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to present and future effects of climate change is a challenging task.