Lead Author

Ian Burton is an independent scholar and consultant and holds positions with Environment Canada as a Scientist Emeritus where he was founding Director of  Adaptation and Impacts Research, and a Senior Policy Advisor. He is also an Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto where he was formerly director of the Institute for Environmental Studies (now Centre for the Environment). Ian is currently a Visiting Fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London (UK) and is serving as a consultant to the UNFCCC Secretariat in Bonn. He is now mainly engaged  in climate change especially adaptation and related policy work.

Dr. Burton has served as a Senior Advisor to the International Development Research Centre (Ottawa), as a Member of the Executive Committee of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, He has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, the United Nations Environment and Development Programmes, and UNESCO as well as numerous Canadian government agencies and consulting firms. He has also worked for the Ford Foundation in India, Sudan, and Nigeria and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the World Academy of Arts and Sciences.