Study Shows Making Cities Greener Doesn’t Just Capture Carbon—It Reduces It

Dozens of European cities could reach net zero carbon emissions over the next 10 years by incorporating nature into their infrastructure, according to a new study.

Published in the journal, Nature Climate Change, the analysis shows the ways cities can orchestrate a wide range of green solutions like parks, streetscaping and roof gardens to not only capture carbon emissions, but help reduce them.

The study was undertaken by researchers from Sweden, the U.S. and China. It recommends the most effective approaches for natural carbon sequestration in 54 cities in the EU. And it shows how blending these steps with other climate actions can enable cities to reach net-zero carbon and actually reduce emissions by an average of 17.4 percent.

Zahra Kalantari, an associate professor in Water and Environmental Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, says the researchers focused on the indirect ways that so-called “nature-based solutions” can contribute to carbon neutrality.

“Nature-based solutions not only offset a proportion of a city’s emissions, but can contribute to reduction in emissions and resource consumption too,” Kalantari says.