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Due to the record-breaking wildfires that occurred in Canada in 2023, unprecedented quantities of air pollutants and greenhouse gases were released into the atmosphere. The wildfires had emitted more than 1.3 Pg CO2 and 0.14 Pg CO2 equivalent of other greenhouse gases (GHG) including CH4 and N2O as of 31 August. The wildfire-related GHG emissions constituted more than doubled Canada's planned cumulative anthropogenic emissions reductions in 10 years, which represents a significant challenge to climate mitigation efforts. The model simulations showed that the Canadian wildfires impacted not only the local air quality but also that of most areas in the northern hemisphere due to long-range transport, causing severe PM2.5 pollution in the northeastern United States and increasing daily mean PM2.5 concentration in northwestern China by up to 2 µg m−3. The observed maximum daily mean PM2.5 concentration in New York City reached 148.3 µg m−3, which was their worst air quality in more than 50 years, nearly 10 times that of the air quality guideline (i.e., 15 µg m−3) issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). Aside from the direct emissions from forest fires, the peat fires beneath the surface might smolder for several months or even longer and release substantial amounts of CO2. The substantial amounts of greenhouse gases from forest and peat fires might contribute to the positive feedback to the climate, potentially accelerating global warming. To better understand the comprehensive environmental effects of wildfires and their interactions with the climate system, more detailed research based on advanced observations and Earth System Models is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada is recognized as a global leader in sustainable forest management. Canadian forests and the forest sector remain vital pillars of the Canadian economy and home to many rural and remote communities. However, climate change is an existential threat to the sustainability of forests and forest-dependent communities. While both direct and indirect threats posed by climate change to Canada's forest sector are now well understood, our understanding of specific forest practices that have emerged from the body of science to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts is not well documented. Through a review of the scientific and grey literature, this study expands our knowledge and operational gaps associated with implementing climate change adaptation and mitigation practices in Canadian forests. The study found a dearth of literature specifically dedicated to reporting on the type of forest practices currently in use across Canada to address mitigation and adaptation. Most reports or studies were published in 2019 or later, with federal and provincial governments being the dominant actors in reporting and monitoring, research, and funding. Across the 15 terrestrial ecozones in Canada, forest practices linked to climate change were reported in 12 ecozones, with most practices reported in the Montane Cordillera located in western Canada. Common forest practices reported include fuel management, assisted migration, enhanced silvicultural activities, and carbon offset projects. We conclude that climate change adaptation/mitigation practices in Canada are in their early stages of implementation. Many practices remain in experimental stages (e.g., genetic trials) or are implemented at a relatively small scale in Canada (e.g., climate-based seed transfer and carbon reserves). The literature suggests that the most mainstream practices associated with climate change mitigation in Canada include tree planting for carbon sequestration and the designation of protected areas to enhance ecosystem resilience. We conclude that despite increasing reports linking climate change benefits with reported forest practices, the reporting in the scientific literature is scarce, poorly reported, and often not grounded in credible evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its northern location, the exposure and vulnerability of Canada's forest ecosystems to climate change impacts are all too glaring. While there is now an extensive body of literature describing expected climate change impacts and potential responses, studies characterizing the implementation of adaptation and mitigation practices in forest management remain rare in the Canadian forest sector. Using a systematic literature review, we examined reports on forest management practices implemented in response to climate change, specifically focusing on governance and institutional arrangements that either support or limit climate change adaptation and mitigation responses. Our literature sample size of 24 documents suggests that the body of literature reporting on adaptation and mitigation practices in forest management is scarce. Governments remain the dominant actors providing funding and leading the implementation and reporting of climate change adaptation practices, primarily in response to national or international climate change commitments. Forest practices such as enhanced silviculture, assisted migration, and nature-based solutions were the most frequently reported. However, given the scarcity of literature, it is difficult to conclude the scope of climate change adaptation practice uptake in Canada. Barriers such as lack of information/data, inter-jurisdictional knowledge transfer, policy conflicts, forest tenure models, technical capacity gaps, and economic barriers to adaptation need to be overcome to strengthen climate change response in forest management. Better coordination of reporting at the provincial and national levels and improved information flows between private sector organizations and governments are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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]

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]

Energy transitions in Indigenous, Northern and remote communities in Canada promise benefits that go beyond reliable, clean and affordable energy services. The Federal and Provincial governments have committed funding to get remote communities off diesel, acknowledging energy transitions' global and local benefits. Besides climate change mitigation, other benefits, including job creation, income generation, community ownership and local economic growth, are fundamental components of the value proposition of renewable energy projects. However, despite the promises, little evidence of the impacts of renewable energy on communities' local conditions exists. This article looks at the relationship between renewable energy projects and community well-being in Canada. We construct a panel of Indigenous communities and well-being levels using Census data and information about renewable energy projects for the period 1981–2016. The findings suggest that renewable energy is associated with higher levels of well-being. Concretely, having access to renewable energy increases overall well-being by 1 to 5 points on the 0–100 well-being scale, depending on the component of the well-being index considered in the analysis. • Renewable energy and community wellbeing is an essential relationship for successful energy transitions. • The size of the renewable energy projects is strongly associated with higher community wellbeing. • Communities that hold majority ownership of renewable energy projects exhibit higher wellbeing levels. • Solar and wind energy projects are associated with higher wellbeing levels, whereas hydropower is associated with lower ones. [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]

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]

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]

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]

The protection of drinking water sources continues to gain momentum in First Nation communities on the Canadian Prairie. Through the identification of potential threats to drinking water sources communities are taking action to mitigate those threats. This article explores the extent to which climate change has been taken into consideration in recent source water protection planning community exercises. In addition, this article describes how source water protection planning has potential to enhance community adaptation strategies to reduce the impacts of climate change on source water and drinking water systems. Results are based on six case studies from Alberta and Saskatchewan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing forests and forest products has substantial potential to help mitigate climate change but the cost has not been extensively examined in Canada. We estimated the cost of seven forest-related mitigation strategies in Canada's 230 million hectares of managed forest, divided into 32 spatial units. For each strategy and spatial unit, we determined forest sector mitigation cost per tonne (t) using estimated impacts on forest sector greenhouse gas emissions and removals and net revenue. National cost curves showed that mitigation averaged 11.0 Mt CO2e·year-1 in 2015-2050 at costs below $50·t CO2e-1 for a strategy of increased recovery of harvested biomass, increased salvage, extraction of harvest residues for bioenergy, and increased production of longer lived products. We also examined national portfolios in which the strategy selected for each spatial unit (from among the seven examined) was chosen to maximize mitigation or minimize costs. At low levels of mitigation, portfolios chosen to minimize costs were much cheaper than those that maximized mitigation, but overall, they yielded less than half the total mitigation of the latter portfolios. Choosing strategies to maximize mitigation in 2015-2050 yielded an average of 16.5 Mt·year-1 at costs below $50·t CO2e-1. Our analysis suggests that forest-related strategies may be cost-effective choices to help achieve long-term emission reductions in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Innovate a BaPMI method for macro-scale distributed hydrologic modeling. • Apply it to a typical large cold-region watershed, Athabasca River Basin in Canada. • Verify feasibility & advantages in characterizing macro-scale cold-region hydrology. • Quantify parametric & hyperparametric sensitivities for facilitating its applications. • Reveal variabilities of climate-driven cross-scale uppermost hydro-variational effects. At macroscales (e.g., large river basins, nations, continents, or the globe), hydro-hazard mitigation under climate change requires accurate, applicable hydrologic models, especially over cold regions of complicated hydroclimatic relations. As an effort to address such a challenge, we innovate a macroscale distributed hydro-modeling method, Bayesian principal-monotonicity inference (BaPMI), based on climate classification, representative-grids selection, statistical hydrology, surrogates-based Bayesian optimization, and variance-based sensitivity analyses. The method is applied to a typical large cold-region watershed, i.e., Athabasca River Basin in Canada, and reveals a series of findings such as the following representatives. BaPMI shows promising skills in quantitatively characterizing macroscale cold-region hydrology under overall impacts of heterogeneous climates. Bayesian optimization of which hyperparameters are insensitive decreases hydro-modeling computational time by up to 96.3% and, together with climate classification, largely enhances BaPMI applicability while ensuring modeling accuracies. Individual BaPMI hydro-model parameters can explain over ¾ of the variation of hydro-modeling accuracies and, due to their interaction, joint calibration is required for avoiding underestimation of the impacts. Climatic conditions dominating cross-scale uppermost hydrologic variations consist of night temperature (40%), day temperature (38%), and precipitation (22%) for all catchments; all river flows along the mainstem are associated with upstream climatic events such as glacier melts. Climatic impacts decline from upstream to downstream and from summer, spring, winter to autumn; this may relate to tempo-spatial heterogeneity of soil, vegetation, geology, human interference and other non-climatic factors. Without this study, macroscale distributed hydrologic modeling would lack one advanced method (i.e., BaPMI) that can immunize against effects of data uncertainty, subjective judgement and climatic collinearity, adapt to complicated hydroclimatic relations and diverse hydro-variable(s) distributions, reveal cross-scale uppermost hydrologic variations and, through inexpensive computations, enhance hydro-modeling accuracies to avoid climatic-impact underestimation. The findings of this study could facilitate BaPMI applications and advance macroscale (cold-region) hydrology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deep decarbonization of the power systems is pivotal to the efforts of global energy transition and climate mitigation. The small modular reactor (SMR) is a decarbonized, reliable and secure generating technology that can bring new possibilities for global power-sector transition. However, such a transition involves a variety of complexities even beyond conventional systems. We comprehensively explore the SMR deployment and the decarbonization pathway in a number of diversified power and jurisdictional systems under various complexities associated with multiple variables, objectives, criteria and constraints that have dynamic and interactive relationships. This effort is based on the development of an SMR-embedded multi-region power system management model (SMPM). Using Canada as an example, here we show that SMRs would play different roles in diversified power systems, particularly for fossil-fuel dependent, highly variable renewable energy-penetrated and off-grid. The introduction of SMRs to Canada would result in up to 71% (/48%) emission reduction from 2005 (/2018) level in the country by 2045. Our results would help show the significance of SMRs for supporting the global energy transition. [Display omitted] • An SMPM model is developed to analyze low-carbon power system transition in Canada. • Multiple complexities and uncertainties in power systems are reflected. • SMR development issue is investigated within a power-system optimization framework. • The regional development of Canada is analyzed by a holistic optimization method. • GHG emissions from Canada's power sector would be 48% lower in 2045 than in 2018. [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]

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]

Analyses of climate change and the forest sector have identified the importance of individual actors, institutions, and organizations within communities for effective adaption and climate mitigation. Yet, there remains little recognition of how the internal dynamics of these institutions and organizations are influenced by gender and other social considerations such as age and culture. Research from developing countries and cognate resource sectors suggests that these considerations are critical for enhancing local adaptive capacity. Despite extensive review of forestry research across North America and western Europe, we found almost no research that addresses how differential social capabilities within forest-based communities affect adaptation to climate change. In this paper, we document the potential that gender sensitivity might provide to conceptions and practical applications of adaptive capacity and identify four types of research opportunities to address this gap: ( i) developing disaggregated capitals frameworks; ( ii) creating inclusive models; ( iii) informing social planning; and ( iv) understanding gender mainstreaming. Research focused on these opportunities, among others, will provide more robust theoretical understanding of adaptive capacity and strategic interventions necessary for effective adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative assessment of Canada's boreal forest mitigation potential is not yet possible, though the range of mitigation activities is known, requirements for sound analyses of options are increasingly understood, and there is emerging recognition that biogeophysical effects need greater attention. Use of a systems perspective highlights trade-offs between activities aimed at increasing carbon storage in the ecosystem, increasing carbon storage in harvested wood products (HWPs), or increasing the substitution benefits of using wood in place of fossil fuels or more emissions-intensive products. A systems perspective also suggests that erroneous conclusions about mitigation potential could result if analyses assume that HWP carbon is emitted at harvest, or bioenergy is carbon neutral. The greatest short-run boreal mitigation benefit generally would be achieved by avoiding greenhouse gas emissions; but over the longer run, there could be significant potential in activities that increase carbon removals. Mitigation activities could maximize landscape carbon uptake or maximize landscape carbon density, but not both simultaneously. The difference between the two is the rate at which HWPs are produced to meet society's demands, and mitigation activities could seek to delay or reduce HWP emissions and increase substitution benefits. Use of forest biomass for bioenergy could also contribute though the point in time at which this produces a net mitigation benefit relative to a fossil fuel alternative will be situation-specific. Key knowledge gaps exist in understanding boreal mitigation strategies that are robust to climate change and how mitigation could be integrated with adaptation to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental Reviews 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.)

The success and rate of forest regeneration has consequences for sustainable forest management, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity, among others. Systematically monitoring forest regeneration over large and often remote areas is challenging. Remotely sensed data and associated analytical approaches have demonstrated consistent and transparent options for spatially-explicit characterization of vegetation return following disturbance. Moreover, time series of satellite imagery enable the establishment of spatially meaningful recovery baselines that can provide a benchmark for identifying areas that are either under- or over-performing relative to those baselines. This information allows for the investigation and/or prioritization of areas requiring some form of management intervention, including guiding tree planting initiatives. In this research, we assess recovery following stand replacing disturbances for the 650 Mha forested ecosystems of Canada for the period 1985–2017, wherein ~51 Mha of Canada's forested ecosystems were impacted by wildfire, and ~ 21 Mha were impacted by harvesting. For quantification of forest recovery, we implement the Years to Recovery or Y2R metric using Landsat time series data based on the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) to relate the number of years required for a pixel to return to 80% of its pre-disturbance NBR value. By the end of the analyzed period, 76% of areas impacted by wildfire were considered spectrally recovered compared to 93% of harvested areas. On average, we found that harvest areas had more rapid spectral recovery (mean Y2R = 6.1 years) than wildfire (mean Y2R = 10.6 years) and importantly, that Y2R varied by ecozone, disturbance type, pre-disturbance land cover, and latitude. We used airborne laser scanning data to assess whether pixels that were considered spectrally recovered had attained United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization benchmarks of canopy height (>5 m) and cover (>10%) across four geographic regions representing different forest types. Overall, 87% and 97% of recovered pixels sampled in harvests and wildfires, respectively, had achieved at least one of the benchmarks, with benchmarks of height more readily achieved than benchmarks of cover. By analyzing spatial patterns of Y2R, we identified areas that had significant positive or negative spatial clustering in their rate of spectral recovery. Approximately 3.5–4% of areas disturbed by wildfire or harvest had significant positive spatial clustering, indicative of slower spectral recovery rates; these areas were also less likely to have attained benchmarks of height and cover. Conversely, we identified significant negative spatial clustering for 0.94% of areas recovering from harvest and 1.93% of areas recovering from wildfire, indicative of spectral recovery that was more rapid than the ecozonal baseline. Herein, we demonstrated that remote sensing can provide spatial intelligence on the nature of disturbance-recovery dynamics in forested ecosystems over large areas and moreover, can retrospectively quantify and characterize historic forest recovery trends within the past three decades that have implications for forest management, climate change mitigation, and restoration initiatives in the near term. • Landsat time series monitored forest disturbance and recovery for 32 years across 650 Mha. • Harvests spectrally recovered more rapidly (6.1 years) than wildfire (10.6 years). • Lidar-derived benchmarks of canopy cover (>10%) and height (>5 m) used for validation. • 87% and 97% of recovered harvest and wildfire samples achieved one of the benchmarks. • Nationally, 3.5%–4% of wildfire and harvest areas had slower than expected recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Forestry Chronicle is the property of Canadian Institute of Forestry 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.)

Climate change mitigation triggers both spatial and moral complexities, as demonstrated by the contentious issue of phasing out coal power. The success of the Paris Agreement depends on, among other things, the acceptability of climate policy measures and thus, from a moral perspective, on the ability to organize transition processes in ways that do not damage the livelihoods of workers, communities, and entire regions. Spatially, the unequal distributions of burdens and advantages of both climate change and respective mitigation measures provoke struggles over their legitimacy in contexts ranging from local to global. Phasing out coal mining and the respective power generation capacity thus triggers processes of structural transformation that cut across geographic scales, vertical levels of policy and politics, as well as sectoral boundaries. In light of the urgency of the climate crisis, countries such as Canada and Germany have established stakeholder-driven commissions to develop proposals for just transition pathways for phasing out coal production and consumption. We argue that these commissions are arenas in which spatial, moral, and sectoral (re-)negotiations materialize. Comparing the Canadian and German stakeholder commissions through expert interviews with their members, the article traces how governments use commissions to legitimize their transition policies. Expectations at different levels and from different actors in turn place commission members under pressure to justify their involvement and the outputs of the commissions. We find that the Canadian task force showed greater commitment to collecting and reflecting the needs of communities in its coal regions, and to communicating these to the federal government. In the German coal commission, legitimation strategies focused mainly on a broad representation of interests, and on government spending for affected regions, workers, and industries. In that case, a compromise was reached that satisfied most, but not all, of the diverse requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an Integrated Terrestrial Ecosystem C-budget model (InTEC), wesimulated the carbon (C) offset potentials of four alternative forest management strategies in Canada: afforestation, reforestation, nitrogen (N) fertilization, and substitution of fossil fuel with wood, under different climatic and disturbance scenarios. C offset potential is defined as additional C uptake by forest ecosystems or reduced fossil C emissions when a strategy is implemented to the theoretical maximum possible extent. The simulations provided the following estimated gains from management: (1) Afforesting all the estimated ? 7.2 Mha of marginal agricultural land and urban areas in 1999 would create anaverage C offset potential of ? 8 Tg C y-1 during 1999-2100, at a cost of 3.4 Tg fossil C emission in 1999. (2) Prompt reforestation of all forest lands disturbed in the previous year during 1999-2100 would produce an average C offset potential of ? 57 Tg C y-1 for this period, at a cost of 1.33 Tg C y-1. (3) Application of N fertilization (at the low rate of 5 kg N ha-1 y-1) to the ? 125 Mha of semi-mature forest during 1999-2100 would create an average C offset of ?58 Tg C y-1 for this period, at a cost of ?0.24 Tg C y-1. (4) Increasing forest harvesting by 20% above current average rates during 1999-2100, and using the extra wood products to substitute for fossil energywould reduce average emissions by ?11 Tg C y-1, at a costof 0.54 Tg C y-1. If implemented to the maximum extent, the combined C offset potential of all four strategies would be 2-7 times the GHG emission reductions projected for the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) initiatives during 2000-2020, and an order of magnitude larger than the projected increase in C uptake by Canada's agricultural soils due to improved agricultural practices during 2000-2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]