Just add trees: How greening concrete jungles will help us adapt to a warming world

"The lack of greenery in city centres has important implications for the way urbanites are able to cope with the challenges of a warming world,' says Emilia Pramova, a climate change adaptation scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research. "Research on forests in urban adaptation to climate variability in developing countries is still in its infancy,” she said.

The blog article explains that studies have been made to show that planting just ten percent more trees in town centres dominated by concrete such as in the UK city of Manchester has been found to decrease surface temperatures by over 2˚C and reduce excess water flow from heavy rains by up to six percent. Moreover, there is also potential to link urban greening initiatives to mitigation policies.