ANTIGONISH: Over $2 million in funding has been awarded to two StFX University faculty members for their work supporting climate change research.
Andrew MacDougall, an associate professor in StFX’s climate and environment department and program coordinator, will lead a project quantifying the climate benefit of nature-based solutions in Canada, after receiving $1,557,149 in funding from the federal government.
StFX is the lead institution on this research project in partnership with Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria, and Concordia University.
“The project is looking at nature-based solutions from a modelling perspective, and basically trying to figure out what the unintended consequences of these solutions that might counteract some of the good things they do,” MacDougall told The Reporter in an interview. “The easiest example is with deforestation. One way to draw CO2 out of the atmosphere is to grow trees, but trees are also dark. If you grew a forest, you can turn a bright field reflecting lots of sunlight, into a kind of dark carnivorous forest, which counteracts some of the (benefits) of drawing out CO2.”
For each of these types of solutions, he said, there is always some kind of process that would counteract it, so the project is really trying to quantify those and figure out the factors at play.
“It feels good to be able to do the research,” MacDougall said. “But there’s also extra responsibilities that come with these type of grants.”
He suggested there will be one full-time and one part-time person employed by the grant, along with 10 to 15 graduate students being employed over the next five years.
“It’s quite vital. These kind of projects require a lot of work and man hours of labour, so being able to fund people to be able to do this work, makes it possible,” MacDougall said. “There’s about nine or 10 different nature-based solutions we will be looking at, and hopefully by the end of this, we’ll know which ones will be most effective in Canada, and which ones are likely to be less effective.”
When asked why there is a need for a comprehensive evaluation of the nature-based solutions, he explained while the systems are complicated, they’re trying to take a natural ecosystem and manipulate it, so that it takes up more carbon.
“Basically, we’re trying to figure out what the potential side effects might be,” MacDougall said. “And we need to look at it from more of a holistic approach.”
Additionally, Dave Risk, an earth sciences professor and head of StFX’s FluxLab, received $475,500 in funding to conduct his own research.
According to a media release, Risk will lead research looking into “Continuous methane mapping in Western Canadian oil and gas towns,” that will help manage urban methane and assist Canada in achieving net-zero by 2050.
The project team consists of Risk’s research group, FluxLab, as well as the National Research Council, and Ecosense Inc. The release stated they will equip three towns with new, Canadian-developed, cost-effective, mobile methane sensors.
“Sensors will be mounted on municipal vehicles to continuously collect measurements and map the area,” Risk said in the release. “We will analyze and compare our data against methane inventory estimates from all sources, like local airsheds and federal models, to understand impact and identify opportunities for reduction. This project will generate data and knowledge for policy makers and municipal governments and create market opportunities for valuable Canadian-developed sensors.”
The funding for both projects came from the Climate Change and Awareness Fund, which was largely created using the $196.5 million fine paid by Volkswagen to the Environmental Damages Fund for circumventing Canada’s environmental protection rules; the largest environmental fine in Canadian history.