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The building sector is responsible for nearly 40% of the total global direct and indirect CO2 emissions. Urban green infrastructure, which includes features such as urban trees, vegetation, green roofs, and green facades, are examples of nature-based solutions often employed as municipal climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. This approach offers a range of cost-effective strategies for reducing municipal CO2 emissions and presents compelling public policy co-benefits such as improved urban livability and enhanced environmental conditions. For municipalities to confidently deploy these solutions at a scale necessary to achieve climate benefits, acquiring knowledge of quantifiable and demonstrated outcomes is an essential requirement. The objectives of this paper are to (1) provide a comprehensive analysis of the advantages and limitations of nature-based solutions (NBS) to address the challenge of reducing CO2 emissions; (2) evaluate existing design guidelines and policies as may be available across Canada, and that that support the of implementation of NBS in urban agglomerations; (3) identify knowledge gaps and research needs to address challenges to the implementation of NBS. In this review, suggestions and requirements as presented in these documents are examined while giving due consideration to the scientific evidence available in research papers. It was found that the adoption of NBS can contribute to carbon neutral communities through reduced building energy consumption and carbon sequestration. Supportive guidelines and policies have been developed, or are in development, to promote the implementation of NBS at the city scale, despite challenges in assessing, quantitatively, their impact due to uncertainties in data, methods, and scale. Nonetheless, existing research provides sufficient evidence to qualify the measures and suggestions outlined in the guidelines and policies described in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Culture & Local Governance / Culture et Gouvernance Locale is the property of Culture & Local Governance, Centre on Governance and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The considerations of how Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to global climate action under the Paris Agreement are ambitious and fair, or equitable, is expected to guide countries' decisions with regards to the ambition and priorities of those contributions. This article investigates the equity aspect of the NDCs of four cases (Canada, the EU, Kenya, and South Africa) utilizing a combination of document analysis and expert interviews. It interrogates both the NDC documents themselves and, uniquely, the role of international and domestic equity considerations within the domestic policy processes that led to the formulation of the NDCs. For this, 30 participants and close observers of these processes were interviewed. We find countervailing effects of equity on ambition, with an enabling, or ambition-enhancing, effect resulting from international equity, in that these four Parties show willingness to do more if others do, too. In contrast, tempering effect appears to result from domestic equity concerns, for example with regards to real, perceived, or anticipated adverse distributional impacts of climate action across regions, sectors, and/or societal strata. Political cultures differ across the four case studies, as do the key actors that influence domestic policies and the preparations of NDCs. This paper also demonstrates that research on equity in NDCs can benefit from expanding its scope from the contents of NDC submissions to also examine the underlying decision-making processes, to generate insights that can contribute to future NDCs being both equitable and ambitious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this empirical case study is to study and explain the role of public leadership in the expansion of municipal climate action in Canada. Design/methodology/approach: In 2017 and 2018, the authors conducted13 semi-directed interviews with municipal staff and elected officials from three municipalities, a documentary analysis of primary and secondary sources. Interviews and documentation collected were also coded using the software NVIVO 12. The authors compared three municipal case studies: the City of Toronto (Ontario), the City of Guelph (Ontario), and the Town of Bridgewater (Nova Scotia). Findings: The authors found that leadership is a prominent factor explaining the expansion of municipal climate action in Canada. Municipal climate action is initiated and championed by an individual, elected officials or municipal staff, who lead and engage in the development of policy instruments to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change. These leaders facilitate the formulation and implementation of instruments, encourage a paradigm shift within the municipality, overcome structural and behavioural barriers, and foster collaboration around a common vision. Optimal municipal climate leadership occurs when the leadership of elected officials and municipal is congruent, though networks play a significant role by amplifying municipal sustainability leadership. They support staff and elected officials leadership within municipalities, provide more information and funding to grow the capacity of municipalities to develop instruments, to the point that conditions under which municipalities are driving climate action are changing. Research limitations/implications: This paper hopes to contribute to better understand under what conditions municipalities drive change. Originality/value: There is an international scholarly recognition that municipalities should be further explored and considered important actors in the Canadian and international climate change governance. Gore (2010) and Robinson and Gore (2015) highlighted that we are yet to understand the extent to which municipalities are involved in climate governance in Canada. This article directly addresses this gap in the current scholarly literature and explores the expansion of climate municipal leadership with the aspects of interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Foreign Policy Journal (CFPJ) is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While carbon offsets in agriculture can play a role in addressing climate change, they are not a perfect substitute for direct emission reductions. As shown in this paper through various arguments and case studies, climate policies in Canada have avoided the use of offsets to be sold in carbon markets, preferring instead to incentivize adoption of best management practices (BMPs) that provide environmental benefits along with climate mitigation benefits. We argue that this is a preferred policy option due to the perils and pitfalls inherent in the measurement and monitoring required to identify offset credits. While an appropriate approach might be to penalize Canadian farmers for any emissions their activities cause, this may do more harm than good. Canadian agricultural production is highly efficient and technologically advanced; therefore, reductions in Canada's contribution to the global food supply will result in less‐efficient production occurring elsewhere (i.e., leakage) that increases global greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to estimate the nexus between energy insecurity and energy poverty with the role of climate change and other environmental concerns. We used DEA like WP methods and properties of MCDA, a most common form of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate the nexus between constructs. This paper presents a measurement and analysis of G7 countries' energy, economic, social, and environmental performance associated with energy poverty indexes. The study used the multiple, comprehensive, and relevant set of indicators, including energy economics and environmental consideration of energy poverty. The net energy consumption of al G7 economies is equal to 34 percent of the entire world along with the net estimate GDP score of around 50 percent. Using DEA modelling and estimation technique, our research presented valuable insights for readers, theorists and policy makers on energy, environment, energy poverty and climate change mitigation. For this reasons, all these indicators combined in a mathematical composite indicator to measure energy, economic, social, and environmental performance index (EPI). Results show that Canada has the highest EPII score, which shows that Canada's capacity to deal with energy self-sufficiency, economic development, and environmental performance is greater than the other G7 countries. France and Italy rank second and third. Japan comes next with 0.50 EPI scores, while the USA has the lowest average EPI score environment vulnerable even though have higher economic development among the G7 group countries. We suggest a policy framework to strengthen the subject matter of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation to climate change impacts is a key research topic in business ethics that poses substantial implications on the good lives of human beings. The commercial port sector is a highly relevant study focus with its pivotal roles in supply chains and international trade. Hence, it is important to investigate whether the port planning system and practice is appropriate in tackling climate change impacts. But beforehand, we must thoroughly understand the attitude and behaviors of port planners and operators on ports’ climate adaptation planning. Through a survey towards 21 ports (seaports and dry ports) in Canada, the paper investigates the attitude and behaviors of port planners and operators on ports’ climate adaptation planning. Towards the end, we propose a new approach so as to enable port stakeholders to carry out climate adaptation planning effectively. The paper offers important insight to researchers to investigate the ways in developing effective climate adaptation plans and practice for ports and other business sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada developed the Living Laboratories Initiative, a network of agroecosystem living labs, to encourage the adoption and scaling up and out of innovation in climate change adaptation and mitigation in agriculture. This paper explores agroecosystem living labs as new collaborative innovation approaches used as co-production policy tools to co-create solutions to complex agri-environmental issues. It answers the question: How can living labs, especially agroecosystem living labs, help us understand more about the co-production processes between public and private actors? Using a combination of semi-structured interviews and participant observation, this study gathered early-stage insights from various agroecosystem living lab partners in two Canadian agroecosystem living lab sites. It found that starting conditions of partners are informative in the initial stages of living lab implementation. Three lessons are identified for other public sector actors looking to use living labs as co-production tools targeting agroecosystems: first metagovernance is essential to a well-functioning agroecosystem living lab; second, it is useful to regularly reflect on power balances within the living lab and closer self-reflection by the metagovernor is important; lastly, social iteration is a useful "check-in" tool to use in addition to any other innovation iterations in the living lab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Policy Studies Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The widely held view is that effective action on climate change requires commitment by national governments to international agreements. Developed nations like Canada and Australia continue to fall short in their commitments to emissions reduction targets established under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Australia refused to ratify its Kyoto commitments until 2008 and Canada withdrew its commitment in 2011. Subnational governments in both countries have been active in developing policy responses to climate change yet remain largely excluded as serious policy partners in national mitigation and adaptation initiatives. This paper utilizes Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework to consider why subnational governments address climate change and the main factors shaping their policy choices. The experiences of the Australian state of Victoria and the Canadian province of Ontario provide examples through which to explore the factors contributing to climate policy opportunities and constraints faced by subnational governments in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global call to address climate change and advance sustainable development has created rapid growth in research, investment, and policymaking regarding the renewable energy transition of Indigenous communities. From a rightsholder perspective, Indigenous Peoples' vision of sustainability, autonomy, and sovereignty should guide research on their energy needs. In this paper, we present a multi-method, inductive examination to identify gaps between Indigenous communities' expressed needs and rights, and the questions researchers and policymakers investigate in energy transition research conducted in the context of Indigenous communities located in Canada. We combine a systematic review of the extant literature, a scoping review of the grey literature on off-grid communities by Indigenous and non-Indigenous governments and non-governmental policy bodies, qualitative primary data collected via fieldwork, and an in-depth study of an Indigenous-led renewable energy transition study conducted by Haíɫzaqv Nation's Climate Action Team. We holistically examine these different perspectives and identify emergent themes to recommend ways to bridge the gaps between off-grid renewable energy research and stated Indigenous community priorities. Specifically, we recommend designing equitable research practices, understanding community worldviews, developing holistic research goals, respecting Indigenous data sovereignty, and sharing or co-developing knowledge with communities to align with community priorities closely. • There is a research-practice gap in Indigenous communities' energy transitions. • We used a multi-method inquiry integrating Indigenous and Western approaches. • Renewable energy literature diverges from the Indigenous community vision and goals. • Indigenous research methods can reduce the research-practice gap in high-tech fields. • Community-based approaches can use traditional laws to yield actionable outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantification and mapping of surficial seabed sediment organic carbon have wide-scale relevance for marine ecology, geology and environmental resource management, with carbon densities and accumulation rates being a major indicator of geological history, ecological function and ecosystem service provisioning, including the potential to contribute to nature-based climate change mitigation. While global analyses can appear to provide a definitive understanding of the spatial distribution of sediment carbon, regional maps may be constructed at finer resolutions and can utilise targeted data syntheses and refined spatial data products and therefore have the potential to improve these estimates. Here, we report a national systematic review of data on organic carbon content in seabed sediments across Canada and combine this with a synthesis and unification of the best available data on sediment composition, seafloor morphology, hydrology, chemistry and geographic settings within a machine learning mapping framework. Predictive quantitative maps of mud content, dry bulk density, organic carbon content and organic carbon density were produced along with cell-specific estimates of their uncertainty at 200 m resolution across 4 489 235 km 2 of the Canadian continental margin (92.6 % of the seafloor area above 2500 m) (10.5683/SP3/ICHVVA, Epstein et al., 2024). Fine-scale variation in carbon stocks was identified across the Canadian continental margin, particularly in the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean regions. Overall, we estimate the standing stock of organic carbon in the top 30 cm of surficial seabed sediments across the Canadian shelf and slope to be 10.9 Gt (7.0–16.0 Gt). Increased empirical sediment data collection and higher precision in spatial environmental data layers could significantly reduce uncertainty and increase accuracy in these products over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Review of Sociology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Scientists advise limiting global warming to 1.5°C with substantial actions by 2030. Our viewpoint argues that climate response strategies in Canada have underemphasized and underestimated the potential contribution deep energy retrofits can make to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, leading to inadequate responses in the building sector, and that Canada can (and should) be ambitious with building retrofits over the next decade. GHG savings from building retrofits can be realized more quickly than GHG reductions from other sectors, and either deliver net cost savings or are cost‐effective when compared to other mitigation measures. Retrofits can also provide social and economic benefits, such as improved health and comfort, and lower energy costs. This paper reviews energy use and building retrofits in Canada and argues the following should be implemented: (1) focus innovation on deep energy retrofit processes, not singular retrofit actions; (2) maximize both social and environmental benefits; (3) improve data gathering and availability for analysis and delivery; (4) innovate for a process of decisions and to avoid "dropouts" during the retrofit process; and (5) focus innovation on business models that maximize benefits. Key Messages: Greenhouse gas savings from deep energy building retrofits are cost‐effective and can be realized more quickly than reductions from other sectors.Program and policy design should prioritize the greatest social, economic, and environmental benefits.Innovation should focus on the retrofit process, financing, and delivery models, rather than solely on technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Forest Research is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Shelterbelts have been planted around the world for many reasons. Recently, due to increasing awareness of climate change risks, shelterbelt agroforestry systems have received special attention because of the environmental services they provide, including their greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential. This paper aims to discuss shelterbelt history in Canada, and the environmental benefits they provide, focusing on carbon sequestration potential, above- and below-ground. Shelterbelt establishment in Canada dates back to more than a century ago, when their main use was protecting the soil, farm infrastructure and livestock from the elements. As minimal-and no-till systems have become more prevalent among agricultural producers, soil has been less exposed and less vulnerable to wind erosion, so the practice of planting and maintaining shelterbelts has declined in recent decades. In addition, as farm equipment has grown in size to meet the demands of larger landowners, shelterbelts are being removed to increase efficiency and machine maneuverability in the field. This trend of shelterbelt removal prevents shelterbelt's climate change mitigation potential to be fully achieved. For example, in the last century, shelterbelts have sequestered 4.85 Tg C in Saskatchewan. To increase our understanding of carbon sequestration by shelterbelts, in 2013, the Government of Canada launched the Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program (AGGP). In five years, 27 million dollars were spent supporting technologies and practices to mitigate GHG release on agricultural land, including understanding shelterbelt carbon sequestration and to encourage planting on farms. All these topics are further explained in this paper as an attempt to inform and promote shelterbelts as a climate change mitigation tool on agricultural lands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying a proposed project's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and scrutinizing their effect on climate change are increasingly required in Canadian environmental assessment (EA) processes. This paper investigates to what degree an EA authority's intention for the inclusion of GHG considerations has resulted in implementation into environmental impact statements (EISs) by proponents and how these considerations influence the achievement of GHG reduction targets. Fifteen projects across five Canadian jurisdictions were reviewed. The examination revealed that well-developed intentions by EA authorities did not necessarily result in proponents following guidelines for GHG consideration in their EISs due to the absence of regulation or clearly defined policies. Conversely, even though intentions by an EA authority are underdeveloped in some jurisdictions, EISs sometimes exhibited thorough GHG assessments due to mechanisms in the EA process through which GHG consideration by the proponent could be compelled. The examination did not reveal how GHG consideration in EA currently assists in meeting reduction targets. A GHG emissions limit imposed during the EA process could link EA to success in meeting these targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Amalgamated Transit Union's (ATU) discussion of environmental issues since the mid 1980s. We explore the trialectic relationship between capital, labour and nature in Canada's public transit unions, primarily through the lens of labour geography. In a review of union documents and Canadian newspapers we find the state uses the environment as a wedge issue in its 'war or position' with unions, representing workers' strike actions as harmful to the environment and the community. The state's positioning of ATU members as crucial to both the functioning of communities and environmental sustainability lends itself to counter-hegemonic campaign strategies. We examine a recent campaign by Toronto's ATU Local 113 entitled "Protecting What Matters" as a local union's community and environmental strategies during a period of austerity. The paper concludes with lessons learned from a labour geography perspective and calls for a more community based approach to resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada has undertaken key commitments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increase adaptation and climate resilience, and realign financial flows, particularly in the country's three successive Nationally Determined Contributions ('NDCs') to the global response to climate change under the 2015 Paris Agreement. Canada and the European Union ('EU') have also launched a new trade agreement, the Canada - EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement ('CETA'), which recognizes that economic development, social development and environmental protection are interdependent and mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development and reaffirms both Canadian and European commitments to promoting trade that contributes to sustainable development for the welfare of present and future generations. In this brief article, several ways in which CETA might contribute to the achievement of Canada's NDC are canvassed. The article discusses whether over time, CETA implementation will clearly commit to climate action and other sustainable development objectives; avoid constraining key laws and policies needed for climate action; intensify cooperation to limit temperature increases, increase the ability to adapt to adverse impacts of climate change, foster climate resilience and lowGHGemissions development and make finance flows consistent with sustainable development; and enhance trade in more climate and nature positive, sustainable goods and services. If so, the article suggests, CETA has the potential to foster rather than frustrate the Parties' commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement, and their work to advance the global Sustainable Development Goals ('SDGs'). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetlands are important ecosystems that are linked to climate change mitigation. As 25% of global wetlands are located in Canada, accurate and up-to-date wetland classification is of high importance, nationally and internationally. The advent of deep learning techniques has revolutionized the current use of machine learning algorithms to classify complex environments, specifically in remote sensing. In this paper, we explore the potential and possible limitations to be overcome regarding the use of ensemble deep learning techniques for complex wetland classification and discusses the potential and limitation of various solo convolutional neural networks (CNNs), including DenseNet, GoogLeNet, ShuffleNet, MobileNet, Xception, Inception-ResNet, ResNet18, and ResNet101 in three different study areas located in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada (i.e., Avalon, Gros Morne, and Grand Falls). Moreover, to improve the classification accuracies of wetland classes of bog, fen, marsh, swamp, and shallow water, the results of the three best CNNs in each study area is fused using three supervised classifiers of random forest (RF), bagged tree (BTree), Bayesian optimized tree (BOT), and one unsupervised majority voting classifier. The results suggest that the ensemble models, in particular BTree, have a valuable role to play in the classification of wetland classes of bog, fen, marsh, swamp, and shallow water. The ensemble CNNs show an improvement of 9.63–19.04% in terms of mean producer's accuracy compared to the solo CNNs, to recognize wetland classes in three different study areas. This research indicates a promising potential for integrating ensemble-based learning and deep learning for operational large area land cover, particularly complex wetland type classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Best Management Practices and Beneficial Management Practices ("MP") are two ideational elements, that have emerged in water quality literature. This research explores the questions of where has the lesser utilized term 'Beneficial' emerged and why? To answer these questions, articles obtained from the Web of Science by searching keywords "Best MP"/"Beneficial MP" and "Water" are analyzed using bibliometric techniques through VOS Viewer including time trend of publications, and indicators including keywords, disciplines, institutions, geographies, influential authors and journals, and key funders of these two terms. This paper also employs document analysis and semi-structured interviews with key policy stakeholders. Beneficial Management Practices emerged in Canada (although the term was used in a few instances elsewhere) in Canadian government policy documents starting in 2003. The term 'Beneficial' refers to a lesser standard than "Best" and is exclusive to agricultural practices in risk and environmental farm policy; "Best Management Practices" refer to a wider set of practices (in other sectors like mining) utilized by a more substantive and diverse set of institutions (predominately American and significantly populated by universities). Explanations for the emergence of the term include that it is more 'honest,' it allows for more choices and trade-offs, it reflects the strong economic driver of agriculture, and several interviewees referred to it better reflecting the uncertainty of science. While the strength of the agricultural sector in influencing the 'Beneficial' discourse is not surprising, the failure to measure the improvement to the water quality of Beneficial Management Programs and measure policy's effectiveness is noteworthy. • Canadian Prairie water quality has not improved since 1990 despite Beneficial Management Practices. • Economic consideration prevents Beneficial Management Practices' environmental effectiveness. • Failure to measure effectiveness at improving water quality inhibits the effectiveness. • The "Beneficial" conflict foreshadows the politics of their climate change mitigation expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic emerged against the backdrop of the longer-term climate change crisis and increasing global awareness of the imperative for climate action, disrupting the post-Paris trajectory of climate policy and media coverage of climate change. We examine news media coverage from Canadian legacy newspapers and answer three questions. First, did the COVID-19 pandemic work as a critical event in its impacts on news media coverage of climate change, and if so, in what ways? Second, did media framing of climate change shift in response to this critical event, and if so, in what ways? Third, are there notable differences between national and subnational media frames? We find that COVID-19 is a critical event linked to a period of reduced media coverage of climate change. However, this critical event also opened new spaces for news framing that connects environmental and economic dimensions of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Forest Research is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Tidal salt marshes are known to accumulate "blue carbon" at high rates relative to their surface area, which render these systems among the Earth's most efficient carbon (C) sinks. However, the potential for tidal salt marshes to mitigate global warming remains poorly constrained because of the lack of representative sampling of tidal marshes from around the globe, inadequate areal extent estimations, and inappropriate dating methods for accurately estimating C accumulation rates. Here we provide the first estimates of organic C storage and accumulation rates in salt marshes along the Pacific coast of Canada, within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve and Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, a region currently underrepresented in global compilations. Within the context of other sites from the Pacific coast of North America, these young Clayoquot Sound marshes have relatively low C stocks but are accumulating C at rates that are higher than the global average with pronounced differences between high and low marsh habitats. The average C stock calculated during the past 30 years is 54 ± 5 Mg C ha -1 (mean ± standard error), which accounts for 81 % of the C accumulated to the base of the marsh peat layer (67 ± 9 Mg C ha -1). The total C stock is just under one-third of previous global estimates of salt marsh C stocks, likely due to the shallow depth and young age of the marsh. In contrast, the average C accumulation rate (CAR) (184 ± 50 g C m -2 yr -1 to the base of the peat layer) is higher than both CARs from salt marshes along the Pacific coast (112 ± 12 g C m -2 yr -1) and global estimates (91 ± 7 g C m -2 yr -1). This difference was even more pronounced when we considered individual marsh zones: CARs were significantly greater in high marsh (303 ± 45 g C m -2 yr -1) compared to the low marsh sediments (63 ± 6 g C m -2 yr -1) , an observation unique to Clayoquot Sound among NE Pacific coast marsh studies. We attribute low CARs in the low marsh zones to shallow-rooting vegetation, reduced terrestrial sediment inputs, negative relative sea level rise in the region, and enhanced erosional processes. Per hectare, CARs in Clayoquot Sound marsh soils are approximately 2–7 times greater than C uptake rates based on net ecosystem productivity in Canadian boreal forests, which highlights their potential importance as C reservoirs and the need to consider their C accumulation capacity as a climate mitigation co-benefit when conserving for other salt marsh ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural climate solutions adopted by agricultural producers, such as cover crops, avoided grassland conversion, and improved nutrient management, can contribute to climate change mitigation while producing social and environmental co-benefits. Scaling natural climate solutions in agriculture is increasingly being explored as a critical component for achieving net-zero targets. There is growing recognition, however, that the hoped-for benefits of natural climate solutions will not be realized without a governance ecosystem that enables adoption. While many governance mechanisms have emerged to promote natural climate solutions in agriculture such as ecosystem service markets, climate innovation and clean tech funds, and producer education and outreach programs, little attention has been paid to how these governance mechanisms effectively contribute to an enabling governance ecosystem and where they fit within. In response, this paper compiles and synthesizes recommendations from relevant research fields including natural climate solutions, agri-environmental stewardship, and environmental governance to formulate a framework for natural climate solutions in agriculture. The framework manifests as a list of ten normative criteria organized by macro, sector, and geographical scales, which, if realized, can be expected to scale natural climate solutions adoption in agriculture. To demonstrate the utility of the framework, it is used to evaluate efforts to promote natural climate solutions in Canada's agriculture sector. This evaluation reveals an approach that is progressing towards meeting the criteria of the framework. However, in its current state, the governance ecosystem that influences natural climate solutions adoption in Canada's agriculture sector is project specific, with a patchwork of governance mechanisms largely operating parallel to one another, such that only some regional successes are possible. The framework is a starting point for identifying what might define an enabling governance ecosystem for natural climate solutions adoption in agriculture based on literature, highlighting the opportunity for future empirical research to build upon this framework towards a more complete view. • An enabling governance system should be developed to scale NCS adoption in agriculture. • A framework to evaluate and organize governance systems that influence NCS in agriculture is presented. • The application of the framework to Canada reveals an approach that is progressing towards meeting the criteria. • The current governance system in Canada reflects a patchwork of project specific mechanisms. • Further research is needed on the governance of NCS in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoring degraded ecosystems is an urgent policy priority to regain ecological integrity, advance sustainable land use management, and mitigate climate change. This study examined current legislation and policies supporting forest landscape restoration (FLR) in Canada to assess its capacity to advance restoration planning and efforts. First, a literature review was performed to assess the policy dimension of FLR globally and across Canada. Then, a Canada-wide policy scan using national databases was conducted. While published research on ecological restoration has increased exponentially in Canada and globally since the early 1990s, our results showed that the policy dimensions of FLR remain largely under documented in the scientific literature, despite their key role in implementing effective restoration measures on the ground. Our analyses have identified over 200 policy instruments and show that Canada has developed science-based FLR policies and best practices driven by five main types of land use and extraction activities: (1) mining and oil and gas activities; (2) sustainable forest management; (3) environmental impact assessment; (4) protected areas and parks; and (5) protection and conservation of species at risk. Moreover, FLR policies have been recently added to the national climate change mitigation agenda as part of the nature-based solutions and the net-zero emission strategy. Although a pioneer in restoration, we argue that Canada can take a more targeted and proactive approach in advancing its restoration agenda in order to cope with a changing climate and increased societal demands for ecosystem services and Indigenous rights. Considering the multifunctional values of the landscape, the science–policy interface is critical to transform policy aspirations into realizable and quantifiable targets in conjunction with other land-use objectives and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how competing discursive and political formations about climate change structure and circulate in social media by mapping a year of climate-related Facebook posts and links by Canadian civil society actors. Drawing upon the concept of connective action, it traces the efficacy and impact of the social media strategies of actors favoring stronger climate action against those aiming to delay or block such action. Distinguishing between self-referential vs network-building connective action and active vs passive types of user engagement, it finds the most significant use of Facebook by Canadian civil society actors was the sharing of mainstream and alternative news sources. Such activity plays a key role in building networked publics around shared perspectives on climate change as well as generating audience subsidies through which users are mobilized to amplify particular news stories, columnists and media outlets. In Canada, conservative actors tend to be more focused upon network building and more effective in producing these subsidies, especially for right-leaning commercial news organizations and alt-right digital outlets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biodiversity and climate change crises have led countries—including Canada—to commit to protect more land and inland waters and to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations. Canada is also obligated to recover populations of at-risk species, including boreal caribou. Canada has the opportunity to expand its protected areas network to protect hotspots of high value for biodiversity and climate mitigation. However, co-occurrence of hotspots is rare. Here we ask: is it possible to expand the network to simultaneously protect areas important for boreal caribou, other species at risk, climate refugia, and carbon stores? We used linear programming to prioritize areas for protection based on these conservation objectives, and assessed how prioritization for multiple, competing objectives affected the outcome for each individual objective. Our multi-objective approach produced reasonably strong representation of value across objectives. Although trade-offs were required, the multi-objective outcome was almost always better than when we ignored one objective to maximize value for another, highlighting the risk of assuming that a plan based on one objective will also result in strong outcomes for others. Multi-objective optimization approaches could be used to plan for protected areas networks that address biodiversity and climate change objectives, even when hotspots do not co-occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential of forests and the forest sector to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is widely recognized, but challenging to quantify at a national scale. Forests and their carbon (C) sequestration potential are affected by management practices, where wood harvesting transfers C out of the forest into products, and subsequent regrowth allows further C sequestration. Here we determine the mitigation potential of the 2.3 x 106 km² of Canada's managed forests from 2015 to 2050 using the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS3), a harvested wood products (HWP) model that estimates emissions based on product half-life decay times, and an account of emission substitution benefits from the use of wood products and bioenergy. We examine several mitigation scenarios with different assumptions about forest management activity levels relative to a base case scenario, including improved growth from silvicultural activities, increased harvest and residue management for bioenergy, and reduced harvest for conservation. We combine forest management options with two mitigation scenarios for harvested wood product use involving an increase in either long-lived products or bioenergy uses. Results demonstrate large differences among alternative scenarios, and we identify potential mitigation scenarios with increasing benefits to the atmosphere for many decades into the future, as well as scenarios with no net benefit over many decades. The greatest mitigation impact was achieved through a mix of strategies that varied across the country and had cumulative mitigation of 254 Tg CO2e in 2030, and 1180 Tg CO2e in 2050. There was a trade-off between short-term and long-term goals, in that maximizing short-term emissions reduction could reduce the forest sector's ability to contribute to longer-term objectives. We conclude that (i) national-scale forest sector mitigation options need to be assessed rigorously from a systems perspective to avoid the development of policies that deliver no net benefits to the atmosphere, (ii) a mix of strategies implemented across the country achieves the greatest mitigation impact, and (iii) because of the time delays in achieving carbon benefits for many forest-based mitigation activities, future contributions of the forest sector to climate mitigation can be maximized if implemented soon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a wealth of financial, technical, and human capacity in Canadian cities, it remains a challenging task to transform this capacity into effective climate change adaptation and mitigation. Indeed, mitigative and adaptive capacities only represent the potential to achieve the ultimate goals of greenhouse gas and vulnerability reduction. This paper builds on previous explorations of barriers to identify powerful levers by which action can be triggered and sustained at the local level through the study of three municipalities in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. The necessity of an explicitly articulated high-level directive, leadership that stimulates an organizational culture of innovation and collaboration, and the ‘institutionalization’ of climate change response measures within standard operating procedures emerged as crucial enablers of action. Addressing a lack of technical, financial, or human resources is less a matter of creating more capacity than of facilitating the effective use of existing resources. This facilitation depends most fundamentally on re-working the path dependent institutional structures, organizational culture and policy-making procedures that have characterized the unsuccessful patterns of climate change policy development in the past. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the ongoing efforts to adapt institutions to the complex and uncertain futures associated with a changing climate, while simultaneously embedding broader sustainability goals in long-range strategic planning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Global commitments to protected area expansion should prioritize opportunities to protect climate refugia and ecosystems which store high levels of irrecoverable carbon, as key components of an effective response to biodiversity loss and climate change. The United States and Canada are responsible for one‐sixth of global greenhouse gas emissions but hold extensive natural ecosystems that store globally significant above‐ and below‐ground carbon. Canada has initiated a process of protected area network expansion in concert with efforts at reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, and acknowledged nature‐based solutions as a key aspect of climate change mitigation. The US, although not a party to global biodiversity conventions, has recently committed to protecting 30% of its extent by 2030 and achieving the UNFCCC Paris Agreement's mitigation targets. The opportunities afforded by these dual biodiversity conservation and climate commitments require coordinated national and regional policies to ensure that new protected areas maximize biodiversity‐focused adaptation and nature‐based mitigation opportunities. We address how global commitments can best inform national policy initiatives which build on existing agency mandates for regional planning and species conservation. Previous analyses of global conservation priorities under climate change have been tenuously linked to policy contexts of individual nations and have lacked information on refugia due to limitations of globally available datasets. Comparison and synthesis of predictions from a range of recently developed refugia metrics allow such data to inform planning despite substantial uncertainty arising from contrasting model assumptions and inputs. A case study for endangered species planning for old‐forest‐associated species in the US Pacific Northwest demonstrates how regional planning can be nested hierarchically within national biodiversity‐focused adaptation and nature‐based mitigation strategies which integrate refugia, connectivity, and ecosystem carbon metrics to holistically evaluate the role of different land designations and where carbon mitigation and protection of biodiversity's resilience to climate change can be aligned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, two studies were conducted by Canada's Parliament on the connections between climate change and agriculture. Links between grazing management and climate change adaptation and mitigation are included in the testimonies gathered during these studies but the resulting final reports are silent on the topic. Analysis of 112 parliamentary files revealed insights on (1) the knowledge about grazing management that was omitted from the two final reports, (2) the social contexts that informed the processes of hearing testimonies and developing the reports, and (3) the underlying ideologies and normative assumptions reflected in these studies. Overall, the current state of policy regarding climate change and agriculture emphasizes technical, scientific, and expensive solutions, and as a result, the benefits of grazing management are overlooked. We argue transformations toward sustainable, climate adaptive agriculture require an ongoing examination of how political structures, knowledge hierarchies, and underlying ideologies inform and narrow policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A retrofit selection strategy employing economic and environmental decision criteria was proposed. • Building energy retrofits were evaluated through a life cycle thinking approach. • Retrofits with operational emissions savings may not be beneficial when considering life cycle impacts. • Energy mix and the heating system of the house greatly impact the effectiveness. • Retrofit selection changes with stakeholder priorities on environment and economics. Improving the energy performance of buildings has been a much-discussed topic over the past few decades. With the current focus on climate change mitigation, emissions reduction has also come to the forefront of this discussion. Retrofitting is an option to improve the energy and emissions performance of buildings. However, in the residential building stock, retrofit planning for existing buildings faces many complexities due to variations in climatic conditions and macro-environment as well as the presence of multiple stakeholder groups. Thus, in identifying solutions, it is necessary to take a holistic perspective that covers these different dimensions. In this paper, commonly used building energy retrofits were evaluated through a life cycle thinking approach. The performance of various retrofit options applicable for single family detached housing were evaluated using the HOT2000 energy simulation software package under the varying climatic conditions and energy supply scenarios across Canada. The retrofits were evaluated in terms of the additional investment, energy use and cost reduction achieved over the life cycle, and life cycle emissions reduction. The findings indicate that the provincial energy mix and the heating system of the house (i.e. electric or natural gas) play a major role in determining the effectiveness of a retrofit, and this "effectiveness" changes at different stakeholder levels. However, not all retrofits that reduce emissions make economic sense and vice versa when life cycle thinking comes into play. The findings will be useful for building owners and occupants as well as for policy developers and other decision makers interested in demand side management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last couple of decades, many peer-reviewed publications focused on the bioeconomy, which it is frequently argued to be a key part of the solution to global challenges (climate change, ecosystem degradation). This study investigates the scientific literature on forest bioeconomy by applying a social network analysis to the bibliometric science. The bibliometric network analysis was performed over the time-frame of 2003-2020 to provide an overview on the main aspects characterising the forest bioeconomy issue. The results show that 225 documents on forest bioeconomy were published by 567 organisations from 44 countries. Finland and Canada are the two most productive countries with 32.8% and 12.7% of forest bioeconomy documents respectively. The co-occurrence network map of the keywords shows that the forest bioeconomy is related to three main concepts: sustainable development, bioenergy production, climate change mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the challenges at the nexus of Canada's energy and climate change policies. Topics include the land treaties with indigenous peoples, implementation strategy for emission reduction known as the Pan Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, which focuses on reductions in the energy sectors of oil and gas production, transportation and electricity, and research themes and implications for sustainability science.

In recent years, there has been an influx of investment in the Arctic, particularly in relation to the extractive industries. Yet in spite of their economic potential, extractive industry projects come with considerable social and environmental risks for northern indigenous communities. Within these communities, the associated challenges of resource development are felt most acutely by women; however, there is a lack of research and analysis concerning the gendered dimension of resource development in northern Canada through the lens of indigenous women's human rights. This article proposes the adoption of a rights‐based approach to address this issue, suggesting that such an approach can provide a coherent framework for enhancing the inclusion and well‐being of indigenous women in resource development, helping to ensure that Canada meets its human rights and constitutional obligations while furthering its commitment to reconciliation with indigenous peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We estimate the mitigation potential of local use of bioenergy from harvest residues for the 2.3 × 106 km2 (232 Mha) of Canada's managed forests from 2017 to 2050 using three models: Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM‐CFS3), a harvested wood products (HWP) model that estimates bioenergy emissions, and a model of emission substitution benefits from the use of bioenergy. We compare the use of harvest residues for local heat and electricity production relative to a base case scenario and estimate the climate change mitigation potential at the forest management unit level. Results demonstrate large differences between and within provinces and territories across Canada. We identify regions with increasing benefits to the atmosphere for many decades into the future and regions where no net benefit would occur over the 33‐year study horizon. The cumulative mitigation potential for regions with positive mitigation was predicted to be 429 Tg CO2e in 2050, with 7.1 TgC yr −1 of harvest residues producing bioenergy that met 3.1% of the heat demand and 2.9% of the electricity demand for 32.1 million people living within these regions. Our results show that regions with positive mitigation produced bioenergy, mainly from combined heat and power facilities, with emissions intensities that ranged from roughly 90 to 500 kg CO2e MWh−1. Roughly 40% of the total captured harvest residue was associated with regions that were predicted to have a negative cumulative mitigation potential in 2050 of −152 Tg CO2e. We conclude that the capture of harvest residues to produce local bioenergy can reduce GHG emissions in populated regions where bioenergy, mainly from combined heat and power facilities, offsets fossil fuel sources (fuel oil, coal and petcoke, and natural gas). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the omission of the funding for large-scale research networks in the field of climate change in the 2017 federal budget of Canada's government. Focus is given to the expiration of the Climate Change and Atmospheric Research program and its impact on the facilities in the Arctic, government-academia research collaborations, and recruitment into the field. The government's plan to focus on mitigation by investing in green infrastructure is discussed.

With the prospects for reaching a binding international treaty on emissions mitigation seemingly remote, global climate governance in the near to mid-term future is likely to rely on bottom-up accretion of domestic efforts and initiatives. This opens up new possibilities but also raises questions about the ability of states to produce collective action internally. This is especially so in federated systems where shared jurisdictional authority and divergent interests present barriers to coordinated action. While political will, leadership, and public pressure are necessary conditions, each prioritizes the "whether" and marginalizes the "how." This article focuses on the latter, exploring how domestic climate governance emerges from the intersection of three archetypal modes of coordination--coercion, competition, and collaboration--and arguing that bringing and holding together these three modes is essential to achieve, and sustain effective coordinated governance. Two cases--Canada and Australia--each with a common coordination challenge but divergent coordination outcomes, illustrate the analytic leverage that can be gained by adopting this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports presented at a workshop in Montréal, Canada in April 2016 regarding vector-borne diseases (VBDs) including dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika virus infection in Canadian cities. The article also presents impact of urban environment, climate change, and mitigation on VBDs. It also focuses on global urban design to reduce chances of life-threatening diseases.

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Quantification of stand and forest C stocks in response to different disturbances is necessary to develop climate change mitigation strategies and to evaluate forest C accounting tools. Live tree, dead tree, woody debris (WD), stump, buried wood, and organic and mineral soil C stocks are described in chronosequences of black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP) (harvest and fire origin) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) (insect and harvest origin). The largest C stocks were found in mineral soil (≤179 Mg·ha-1), organic soil (≤123 Mg·ha-1), and live tree (≤93 Mg·ha-1) pools. Live tree C changed predictably with disturbance history and time since disturbance, increasing with forest age. Regeneration growth slowed under snags. Thinning accelerated production of larger trees but reduced site live tree C. Dead tree and WD C were temporally dynamic and strongly influenced by disturbance history and time since disturbance, but abundances in differently disturbed forests converged at low levels 40-60 years after disturbance. Only immediately following natural disturbances were there large amounts of snag C (26-30 Mg·ha-1). WD C was relatively abundant <3 years after harvesting (15-17 Mg·ha-1) and 31-36 years after natural disturbance (9 Mg·ha-1). Buried wood stocks were small, but comparable with WD stocks in some forests. Il est nécessaire de quantifier les stocks de C dans les peuplements et les forêts en réaction aux différentes perturbations pour élaborer des stratégies visant à atténuer les effets des changements climatiques et pour évaluer les outils qui servent à mesurer le C des forêts. Les stocks de C dans les arbres vivants, les arbres morts, les débris ligneux (DL), les souches, le bois enfoui, le sol organique et le sol minéral sont décrits dans des chronoséquences d'épinette noire (Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP), issues de coupes et de feux, et des chronoséquences de sapin baumier (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) issues de coupes et d'épidémies d'insectes. Le sol minéral (≤179 Mg·ha-1), le sol organique (≤123 Mg·ha-1) et les arbres vivants (≤93 Mg·ha-1) contenaient les plus grandes quantités de C. Le C des arbres vivants variait de façon prévisible en fonction de la nature des perturbations et du temps écoulé depuis qu'est survenue une perturbation et il augmentait avec l'âge de la forêt. La croissance de la régénération ralentissait sous les chicots. L'éclaircie accélérait la production de plus gros arbres mais réduisait le C chez les arbres vivants qui restaient. Le C des arbres morts et des DL était temporairement dynamique et fortement influencé par la nature des perturbations et le temps écoulé depuis qu'est survenue une perturbation, mais l'abondance dans des forêts ayant subi différentes perturbations convergeait vers un faible niveau 40-60 ans après la perturbation. La quantité de C dans les chicots (26-30 Mg·ha-1) était élevée mais seulement immédiatement après une perturbation. Le C était relativement abondant dans les DL moins de 3 ans après une coupe (15-17 Mg·ha-1) et 31-36 ans après une perturbation naturelle (9 Mg·ha-1). La quantité de C dans le bois enfoui était faible mais comparable à la quantité de C dans les DL dans certaines forêts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluvial flooding in Canada is often snowmelt-driven, thus occurs mostly in spring, and has caused billions of dollars in damage in the past decade alone. In a warmer climate, increasing rainfall and changing snowmelt rates could lead to significant shifts in flood-generating mechanisms. Here, projected changes to flood-generating mechanisms in terms of the relative contribution of snowmelt and rainfall are assessed across Canada, based on an ensemble of transient climate change simulations performed using a state-of-the-art regional climate model. Changes to flood-generating mechanisms are assessed for both a late 21st century, high warming (i.e., Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5) scenario, and in a 2 °C global warming context. Under 2 °C of global warming, the relative contribution of snowmelt and rainfall to streamflow peaks is projected to remain close to that of the current climate, despite slightly increased rainfall contribution. In contrast, a high warming scenario leads to widespread increases in rainfall contribution and the emergence of hotspots of change in currently snowmelt-dominated regions across Canada. In addition, several regions in southern Canada would be projected to become rainfall dominated. These contrasting projections highlight the importance of climate change mitigation, as remaining below the 2 °C global warming threshold can avoid large changes over most regions, implying a low likelihood that expensive flood adaptation measures would be necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]