Environment Canada Policy Research Seminar Series

The Environment Canada Policy Research Seminar Series is an initiative designed to bring leading academics and policy makers to speak and exchange ideas with Environment Canada staff on current policy issues.  A list of upcoming seminars is provided below.

The series was launched in March 2000, with a view to providing six to eight seminars per year.  The seminars consist of a presentation of about an hour, followed by a half-hour question and discussion period.

Summaries of past seminar presentations are provided by the links below, along with biographical sketches of speakers. Annual compendiums of speakers are held in the main departmental library.  Video and audiotapes of the presentations are also made available to employees of Environment Canada's regional offices.  Copies of the tapes can be borrowed from Environment Canada's main library.

The series is organized by Environment Canada's Policy Research Directorate.

Future Events:

Past Events:

Emil Frind
University of Waterloo
Current Issues in Groundwater Management
November 10, 2004

Robert Prescott-Allen
Padata Consulting
International Comparisons of the Well-being of Nations
September 14, 2004

Bob Rae
21st Premier of Ontario
Government and Environmental Protection
May 25, 2004

Robert Kuehn
University of Alabama Environmental Justice
A Taxonomy of Environmental Justice
April 30, 2004

Lester Brown
Founder, Worldwatch Institute
"Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble"
March 4, 2004

Angela Cropper
President, The Cropper Foundation
Relating International Sustainable Development Goals to National Agendas
January 21, 2004

Don Mackay
Director, Canadian Environmental Modelling Centre Trent University, Environmental and Resource Studies
"Managing Chemicals in the 21st Century Environment"
December 12, 2003

Robert Repetto
Yale University, School of Environmental Studies
"Protecting Investors and the Environment through Financial Disclosure"
November 17, 2003

Exequiel Ezcurra
Harmonizing Development Interests and Conservation Priorities: the Case of Baja California and the Sea of Cortés
April 25, 2003

John Eyles
The Culture of Fear and Environmental Health: Making Policy in Uncertain Times
March 21, 2003

Mary Simon
The North: A Unique Environmental Responsibility - Emerging Governance in the Circumpolar Region
February 7, 2003

Ronald Brooks
The Roots of Conservation Ethics: Is Conservation Unnatural?
November 29, 2002

John Robinson
Interactive Science for Sustainability in the Georgia Basin
November 7, 2002

Buzz Holling
Surprise is Here : Recent Advances in Linking Environmental, Economic and Social Systems
September 27, 2002

Richard Lipsey
How Economic Growth and Environmental Protection Can be Compatible?
June 7, 2002

Dennis Meadows
The Limits to Growth: Debate 1972 to 2002
May 3, 2002

Jean Piette
The Emergence of a New Body of Law: The Law of the Environment
March 22, 2002

Elizabeth Dowdeswell
Design for the Real World: Ideas for Achieving Sustainable Development
March 1, 2002

Jill Jäger
Global Environmental Change: How do Humans fit in?
February 15, 2002

Daniel Esty
Counting the Environment: The Environmental Sustainability Index and the Shift Toward More Data-Driven Environmentalism
December 7, 2001

James Kay
Ecosystems as Complex Systems: Using This Approach in Policy
September 28, 2001

Edward Parson
Adaptive Management Can it Work? What Would it Take?
June 22, 2001

Lee Schipper
Kyoto Roadmap: Indicators of Carbon Emissions in Industrialized Countries
April 23, 2001

James Meadowcroft
Implementing Sustainable Development Strategies and Initiatives in High Consumption Societies
March 30, 2001

Jack Mintz
Should Taxation be Used for Environmental Policy?
March 9, 2001

Mark Jaccard
What Would a Sustainable World Look Like? Dematerialization vs. Detoxification
January 19, 2001

William Leiss
The Trouble With Science: Understanding Risk Controversies
November 24, 2000

William Rees
Our Ecological Footprint: When Consumption Does Violence
October 13, 2000

Arnold Naimark
Biotechnology: Advising Policy Makers About Opportunities and Risk
September 8, 2000

Robert Costanza
Natural Capital and Sustainable Development
July 14, 2000

Konrad von Moltke
The Precautionary Principle in Environmental Policy
March 10, 2000