Canada’s climate change likely greater than global average: IBC research

Canada will be on the front lines of temperature changes associated with global warming, with much warmer winters and warmer summers, according to a new research report commissioned by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC).

Key findings of the report, authored by climate scientist Dr. Gordon McBean, will be released June 4. It examines future weather trends in Canada, including the specific impact of climate change in seven key regions across the country.

IBC noted that catastrophic events cost Canadian insures roughly $1.7 billion in 2011. “We hope the research will act as a catalyst for governments, industry, communities and individuals to recognize the weather risks we are facing and to enter discussions about how to reduce their effects on Canadians’ lives and communities,” says Gregor Robinson, senior vice president of policy and chief economist for IBC.

Internationally, more than 180 countries agreed May 25 on a plan to achieve a new climate change treaty by 2015 at United Nations climate talks in Bonn, Germany, Reuters reported. The agreement was bogged down by a week-long deadlock over procedural issues that pitted developed regions, such as Europe and the United States, against developing countries, including China and India.

U.N. climate talks in South Africa last year resulted in a package of measures that would extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol after it expires at the end of this year and decide a new, legally binding accord to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 2015, coming into force by 2020. Canada formally withdrew from the Kyoto agreements in December 2011.

In the Bonn discussions, the first negotiation session since that deal was struck, delegates have argued for over a week on how to organize work on a new climate deal and appoint a chair to steer the process. The next round of U.N. climate talks is scheduled for the end of this year in Doha, Qatar.