News

IC3 members Luna Khirfan, Robert McLeman and Linda Mortsch are lead authors in the upcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC's) Working Group II report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. The report is due to be released on February 28, 2022 and assess the impacts and risks of climate change, looking at ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. It will also review vulnerabilities and the capacities and limits of the natural world and human societies to adapt to climate change.

As witnessed in recent weeks, rising seas, swollen atmospheric rivers and post-tropical storms are a threat to community infrastructure, housing and the safety of those living along Canada’s east and west coasts. In response, new guidance from the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, University of Waterloo, presents practical solutions to limit the financial and social costs of these evolving risks.

Congratulations to Waterloo professors and IC3 members, Zahid Butt, Wesley Van Wychen, Chul Min Yeum, Michelle Rutty, and Yimin Wu, on receiving funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF). 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCCC) released the Working Group I contribution, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, to the Sixth Assessment Report on August 9, 2021. It addresses the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence from paleoclimate, observations, process understanding, and global and regional climate simulations.

The disruption of Indigenous-controlled fire use at the onset of colonization has resulted in high-severity fire activity, according to a new study by a research team at the University of Waterloo.

Congratulations to Craig Janes, professor and director of the School of Public Health Sciences, along with colleague Jennifer Liu, professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology, and their research team, who have been awarded funding through a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant. Their project “Impact of flooding on the accessibility and utilization of health services in Western Province, Zambia” has been awarded more than $500,000 over three years.

Robert McLeman, Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change (IC3) member and Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, is a lead author of the International Dimensions chapter of the Canada in a Changing Climate: National Issues Report, released on June 28, 2021 by the Government of Canada.

Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change (IC3) members and Waterloo professors, Daniel Scott and Jason Thistlethwaite, are contributing authors of the Sector Impacts and Adaptation chapter of the Canada in a Changing Climate: National Issues Report released on June 28, 2021 by the Government of Canada.

Climate change poses significant risks to water security in urban settings. Addressing this complex challenge requires collaboration and the incorporation of knowledge and expertise from various disciplines. The University of Waterloo’s Water Institute (WI) and Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change (IC3) are advancing these efforts by delivering a uniquely designed, three-week virtual summer school - Climate Change and Water Security in Urbanized Watersheds: An Interdisciplinary Perspective.

Waterloo researchers contribute to new science led by Nature United, which concluded that by protecting, better managing, and restoring nature, Canada can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The new study, Natural Climate Solutions for Canada, published in Science Advancesshows that Natural Climate Solutions can help Canada mitigate up to 78 Mt CO₂e annually in 2030—an amount equal to the current greenhouse gas emissions from powering every single home in Canada for about three years.