While being major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, cities also suffer some of the most severe climate change impacts. Urban forests have gained increasing recognition as nature-based solutions to climate change via the various benefits they provide, such as carbon sequestration and temperature regulation. Many cities have developed climate change and/or urban forest policies to enhance climate resilience and support urban livability. However, many cities are also promoting concepts such compact and walkable neighbourhoods that may have a negative impacts on urban forests. The connections among various climate action are complicated and not well studied. As more Canadian cities start to integrate urban forests as part of their climate action, there is an increasing need and urgency to understand how different climate action interact with urban forestry related action. The presentation will provide an overview of the level of alignment between climate change and urban forestry policies across big cities in Canada, and examine the possible synergies and trade-offs between various climate action and urban forestry action via a case study of municipalities in the Metro Vancouver region. Worth 1 CEU.
