Community Matters: Council of the Great Lakes Region to conduct climate-change study

Bruce Power will partner with the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR) to conduct a climate-change study over the next three years, providing leadership in this emerging area of importance.

The study will provide insight into the following issues:
 

• The state of climate change science in the Great Lakes Region.
• The impact of a changing climate on various ecosystems and sectors in the Great Lakes, including the region’s aquatic environment, fisheries and Bruce Power’s operations.
• The knowledge and decision-making systems companies and communities need to better manage changing risks as a result of climate change.
• The role that Bruce Power and other sectors might play in tackling climate change on a local and regional level, and how companies can adjust their corporate sustainability strategies to limit their impact.

The Great Lakes region is both an economic powerhouse and a globally-significant bioregion and freshwater resource. As the region continues to grow and prosper, it’s crucial that business, government, academia and the non-profit sector work together to understand and limit the impact of climate change in the Great Lakes, while seeking new ideas and technologies that will help accelerate our transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.

Bruce Power continues to play a role as a provider of clean electricity, contributing to Canada’s action plan on climate change. The field of study on climate change is still relatively new, and Bruce Power continues to be engaged in understanding the impacts from climate change predictions and considering how it may affect future operations.

Bruce Power will continue to keep abreast of the science and application of knowledge to understand climate change. We have commissioned the CGLR to conduct this study in order to provide important information and data that will assist Bruce Power and its partners in planning for the future, and also place continued focus on our role as a clean provider of electricity to tackle climate change itself.

Bruce Power continues to review ongoing and future operations, to ensure that adaptive mitigation to changes in climate will be incorporated into the site operations. Though nuclear energy generates no carbon emissions and fights climate change simply by making carbon-intensive energy supplies such as coal unnecessary, there are still things we can do on our site, in our community, and regionally, to reduce the impacts of climate change and meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own economic, social and environmental needs.

The Great Lakes Region consists of Ontario and Quebec in Canada, and Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota in the United States.

Bruce Power and the CGLR have previously collaborated on a study titled, ‘Driving Economic Growth and Keeping the Air Clean: The role of nuclear power in the Great Lakes Region,’ which can be downloaded at brucepower.com. Bruce Power and CGLR are looking for partners to join the conversation and the study. Those interested in learning more, can contact info@brucepower.com or mark@councilgreatlakesregion.org.

As always, you can E-mail me at james.scongack@brucepower.com or on Twitter @jscongack.