Catherine McKenna, minister of climate change and the environment, and Kristy Duncan, minister of science, announced on Oct. 19 the federal government’s commitment of $22 million towards climate change research at an event held at Carleton.
Carleton professor Matthew Johnson and his team of researchers were one of the four recipients, and received $5.5 million in funding for research on flaring.
Flaring is the burning of natural gas that cannot be processed, Johnson said, and its effects on the environment include black carbon emissions, and accelerated melting of snow.
Duncan said the money will fund four networks across the country—projects focused on the environment, natural resources, advanced manufacturing, and energy.
“[Johnson] and his team will work to better understand the impact of pollutants from flare scraps from the energy industry,” she said.
She said his work aligns with the government’s commitment to fight climate change.
Approximately 80 per cent of global energy is fossil fuel-derived, Johnson said.
“Flaring is at the core of many of these issues,” he said. “Initial impacts of flaring present a fundamental truth in this. You can’t regulate what you can’t measure. You can’t trade what you can’t quantify. You can’t properly incentivize the mediation action you want if you don’t have a full understanding of a range of emissions and their environmental impact.”
The core objectives of FlareNet, Johnson’s project, are to provide an understanding that enables the science-based regulation, he said.
“This is how we’re going to get accurate inventories, understand what our climate and health depict, and ultimately engineer solutions to reduce the impacts of the oil and gas sector,” Johnson said.
“We’re very excited to get to work,” he said.
