In the hierarchy of priorities, spending on the environment and the arts appears to be at the lowest rung of the ladder in the 2010 federal budget.

While climate change was mentioned as a high priority in Wednesday’s throne speech, there are few budget measures directly related to reducing Canada’s or the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The Next Generation Renewable Power Initiative will set aside $100 million over four years for clean-energy projects in the forestry sector. There is also a tax break for equipment that generates or conserves energy by using green technologies.

It started with a handful of candy—but Suresh Narine hopes his ideas might help change the world.

Narine, a Trent professor since September, has been awarded the $1.25-million Ontario Research Chair in Green Chemistry and Engineering. He’ll put that funding to use as he and his team develop ways to phase out petrochemicals in food, lubricants, waxes and chemicals, and replace them with biomaterials.

“If you think about it,” he said, “Petrochemicals began their existence as organic materials. We’re just fast-forwarding the process by 500 million years.”

Narine, one of the country’s leading experts in food physics, graduated from Trent University in 1999 with a master’s degree before heading to the University of Guelph to earn his doctorate. His initial plan was to return to his native Guyana, but his life then took an abrupt turn