Ottawa will be taking a close look at the economic impacts of a changing climate in Canada, making it the third country – after the UK and Australia – to fund such research.

“While such studies give indications that the worldwide impacts of climate change may be considerable, there has been limited study on exactly how climate change will impact the Canadian economy, or the economies of other individual countries,” say the terms of reference for the research study, released during the first week of January by Environment Canada.

“Finding a solution to this problem requires impact functions tailored to the Canadian context,” say the terms of reference. “However, because Canada is an open economy, it is highly likely that economic impacts that occur in the rest of the world will have a considerable impact on Canada.”