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Top scientist warns lack of stable funding for climate research will have serious consequences for Canada

One of Canada’s top scientists is warning that the federal government’s refusal to provide stable, long term funding for Canadian university-based climate and environment research will have serious long term consequences for the country.

Nobel Prize-winning University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver says the consequences are particularly dire because Canada is a northern country, and will be affected by climate change more than most.

Last winter the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Science (CFCAS) said it needed $25 million in annual funding over ten years to continue its work.

News emerged this week that the Conservative government, which has not provided any funding to the CFCAS since coming to power four years ago, agreed to extend the foundation’s mandate by one year to March 2012, but would not commit any new money.

In an interview with Canadian Press, environment minister Jim Prentice said that funding from the previous Liberal government would not run out until March 2011 and the Conservative government cannot make funding decisions that far in advance.

“This basically spells the end for climate and atmospheric science research in Canada,” says Weaver. “It has taken nearly two decades for Canada to emerge as an international leader in this field, and the government is dismantling that in a few months.”

Weaver says the government doesn’t seem to understand that research grant funding is used to pay the salaries of young scientists in training who go on to be tomorrow’s innovators.

“It takes years to find the right staff and put labs in place, and just a few months of uncertainty ... to get them to move,” he said.

The Harper government says it’s investing in research through its Knowledge Infrastructure Program, but Weaver says that beyond photo-ops, that funding won’t help.

“Sadly, you can’t run infrastructure without salary support for technical staff,” he warns. “Massive publicly funded white-elephants are dotting the labs of universities across Canada as people can no longer support technicians to use the infrastructure.”

Less than half of what the government says it’s investing on university and college research infrastructure is actually going to research related projects, according to a CAUT analysis of the government’s own funding announcements.

“In my opinion, the current Canadian administration is anti-science,” Weaver said. “Rather than encouraging science to inform policy as in the rest of the developed world, the Harper administration treats science as just another annoyance that should be prorogued so it doesn’t interfere with their ideological agenda.”