When we are in front of a camera, we have the reflex to smile. This is what Alain Bourque did spontaneously when the photographer of The Press draws his portrait, even before the start of our interview.
But quickly, this specialist in adaptation to climate change changed his mind. “I did Patrice Roy yesterday and I found myself smiling too much,” he explains.
It’s not a whim. It is a question of adequacy between the image he projects in public and the subjects he addresses.
Alain Bourque, general director of Ouranos – the Quebec consortium on adaptation to climate change – is an affable man. Jovial, even. But… the planet is burning.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Alain Bourque, general director of Ouranos, the Quebec consortium on adaptation to climate change
“According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the rise in global temperatures is already 1.1-1.2˚C, and it is roughly double for the Quebec,” he recalls.
“And this year, I think it will create a shock, we will probably be more around a change of 1.5 ˚C. » Due to the – temporary – impact of the El Niño phenomenon which is added to that of climate change, he explains.
Let’s face it: you would have to have been locked in a windowless basement during the summer not to have seen the extreme weather events succeed one another (and overlap). Here as elsewhere.
This is one of the reasons why I wanted to meet him, in fact. While a summit on climate ambition under the auspices of the UN is taking place in New York, I wondered if the summer we have just experienced could represent a turning point in public opinion on the climate issue. .
I also wanted to take stock of our efforts in terms of adaptation – it’s an open secret, they are still too slow.
“We finally seem to be moving from the stage of awareness of the fact that there is climate change to the stage of ‘what are we doing’,” he told me.
Good news, then.
This is why, if he admits to being “worried”, he also says he is “optimistic”.
“Because it’s going in the right direction. There seems to be a widespread awakening. »
Is this awakening the result of recent natural disasters? Not only that, believes the expert, who has worked for Ouranos since the very beginnings of this consortium, in the early 2000s.
He recalls that at the time, there began to be repeated forest fires in British Columbia. He also explains that in Quebec, the successive floods of 2017 and 2019 “really had a big influence”, particularly in the municipal world.
Which makes him say that the awakening happened gradually.
Due to “the frequency, intensity, duration and accumulation of these events”, alongside advances in science.
We must therefore continue to accelerate the reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality, it is fundamental. But it is also crucial, now, to adapt.
On the one hand, it is reassuring to discuss with Alain Bourque. In the same way it is calming to know that a medical team is taking care of you or your loved ones in the event of illness. Or that firefighters are dispatched to the scene of a fire.
This guy and his team (of around fifty people) have detailed plans to help our society adapt to climate change – including through nearly 400 research projects. A survival guide, so to speak.
But on the other hand, it is shocking to hear him say that we are still far too late. “I always found that public policies were pretty much systematically 15 to 20 years behind the times,” he says.
He makes it clear that this delay is not something theoretical. It has a real and measurable impact.
I ask him to offer concrete examples where we have not moved quickly or vigorously enough. He cites in particular the greening of cities, the protection of wetlands and the construction of infrastructure more resilient to climate risks.
“We have just passed 15 years of major investments in infrastructure and the vast majority have not integrated climate change into their design,” he laments.
“If we had done that in infrastructure, today we would have much less sewer backups and flooding, etc. », continues the expert.
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
A trailer surrounded by water following flooding on the Richelieu River, in Lacolle, in May 2011
And added: “If we had greened the cities, we would have much less degradation of biodiversity and if we had built housing projects or buildings better adapted to a hotter climate, when there are heatwaves, we would have a lower mortality rate, fewer people inconvenienced, less concentration of vulnerable populations in neighborhoods like Hochelaga-Maisonneuve or Parc-Extension – which are hit hard when there are heatwaves. »
Oh, and insurance premiums would “probably” have climbed less in recent years, too! Prevention is better than cure. And the fact is that it costs a lot less.
The picture is not entirely gloomy. In North America, Quebec is ahead of many states, explains Alain Bourque.
Even for certain issues, such as flooding, there has been notable progress in recent years. Whether in terms of mapping flood zones or in terms of regulations.
There is still work to be done, but we are much further ahead than in the forestry sector, to cite just another example. We could have reviewed our forest management practices a long time ago. Today, after devastating fires, Quebec’s chief forester is forced to urge the government to act. Will we move fast enough?
It is likely that these issues, like many others, will be discussed from October 2 to 6 during the international Adaptation Futures event. As its name suggests, this is a conference on adaptation to climate change. It will take place in Montreal.
“We are seen as a fairly leading organization in the world in terms of adaptation to climate change,” underlines Alain Bourque about Ouranos. We have the capacity to organize an international event. »
This reminds us to what extent this consortium, set up by Quebec in the wake of the Saguenay floods and the ice crisis, is credible, renowned and useful.
We brought Ouranos into the world, maybe we should listen to him.
Who is Alain Bourque?
Alain Bourque was practically predestined to become general manager of Ouranos. After completing undergraduate studies in meteorology at McGill University, he obtained his master’s degree in atmospheric sciences at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Subsequently, at Environment Canada, he worked on meteorological analyzes of the Saguenay floods… before taking charge of the ice storm file at the end of the 1990s. Under his direction, at Ouranos, we find around fifty of people who are experts in adaptation to climate change.