Dorothy Westerman
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 03/05) - The executive director of the Arctic Energy Alliance will participate in a review of a United Nations report on climate change.

Dr. David Malcolm of Yellowknife will be part of the ongoing Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In his role, he will provide comments on the 15th chapter of the United Nations' IPCC's Third Assessment report: Climate Change 2001.

"It relates to climate change, impacts and adaptation in the polar regions," Malcolm said.

"I review this material to see if it makes sense from our Northern Canada perspective," Malcolm said.

Key findings he will research and comment on include anticipated impacts of climate change on remote Northern communities.

"We've been seeing some of them with permafrost melting and damage to infrastructure such as roads and runways," Malcolm said.

"I would like to see that substantiated as much as possible," he said.

Malcolm said he also would like to see research reported on how remote communities can and should adapt to climate change.

"There is going to be a lot of adaptation required and we need to know how to develop a strategy to adapt," he said.