Water, energy and climate benefits of urban greening throughout Europe under different climatic scenarios.

ABSTRACT: Urban greening is an effective mitigation option for climate change in urban areas. In this contribution, a European Union (EU)-wide assessment is presented to quantify the benefits of urban greening in terms of availability of green water, reduction of cooling costs and CO₂ sequestration from the atmosphere, for different climatic scenarios. Results show that greening of 35% of the EU's urban surface (i.e. more than 26,000 km²) would avoid up to 55.8 Mtons year^-1 CO₂ equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions, reducing energy demand for the cooling of buildings in summer by up to 92 TWh per year, with a net present value (NPV) of more than 364 billion Euro. It would also transpire about 10 km³ year^-1 of rain water, turning into

SUBMITTER: Quaranta E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8190137 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature