Climate value of urban trees

Urban areas are both increasingly affected by climate change and among the major contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, generating up to 70% of global anthropogenic emissions. Increasing climate change-related risks in cities will affect infrastructure, ecosystems, housing, service delivery, and the livelihoods and health of urban communities. The EU strategy on adaptation to climate change calls for cities to set city-level targets for emissions reduction, plan and implement urban investments, and develop management strategies on urban resilience to climate change. Urban green spaces and natural areas play a key role in this, providing many environment functions and benefits to air quality, noise levels, soil stability and biodiversity. LIFE CLIVUT will develop an urban green asset strategy for Mediterranean medium-size cities and implement it in four pilot cities: two in Italy, one in Greece and one in Portugal. The strategy, designed along an ecosystem-based approach, will: 1) improve urban ecosystem adaptation capacity; 2) maximise the climate mitigation potential of urban green assets; 3) bring biodiversity and nature conservation benefits, improving human safety, health and wellbeing. The specific objectives are to: develop and test a decision support system which gives urban planners and other stakeholders the quantitative models and projections they need to design and manage urban green assets; involve citizens in the design and implementation of the urban climate green asset strategy by communicating the benefits of urban green spaces, building a participatory process, and encouraging them to help monitor and manage public and private greenareas; engage urban business actors in developing the strategy by raising awareness of the finances of business-related emissions, climate-responsible business policy and related savings, involving them in the participatory process, and developing pilot incentive systems. The goal is that all businesses pursue environmental and climate-responsible policies; test national and international best practices in education to encourage greater youth climate and environmental consciousness. In this way, the project will contribute to: the EU strategy on adaptation to climate change; the new Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy; Directive 2008/50/EC on air quality (by reducing air pollution near urban green areas, including PM, SO2 and NOx); European strategies on innovating with nature and the green infrastructure strategy; and the EU biodiversity strategy.Expected results: reduced urban emissions (CO2 equivalent: -18 200 tonnes/year; NOx: -1 200 tonnes/year; SO2: -2 300 tonnes/year) thanks to tree planting, new zero-emission strategies from companies joining the pilot actions, among other changes; carbon and PM10 sequestration from trees planted amounting to 230 tonnes of CO2 and 2 600 tonnes of PM10 annually; energy savings of 82 000 Mwh/year as a result of trees' micro-climatic benefits; at least a 10% increase in the City Biodiversity Index (Singapore Index) score in the four cities; eradication of alien species and restoration of native species in about 100 ha of urban green spaces, with at least three alien species totally or partially eradicated per municipality; increase in Shannon's and Simpson's biodiversity index by 5-10%, in terms of number of species; 8 000 new plants (trees and shrubs) planted in the four municipalities; 6 000 plants exchanged for high climate performance tree/shrubs; 40 000 visits to the website; 5 000 participants in the consultations on the decision support system on tree planting and management; 1 600 students taking project courses; 4 000 participants in the public consultation; 400 entrepreneurs or citizens using the emission calculator; 200 appearances in local media.