Natural solutions: Greening of cities lowers carbon emissions

Natural solutions: Greening of cities lowers carbon emissions

Researchers from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, MIT, Stockholm University, University of Gävle, Linköping University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University worked together on the study.To achieve carbon-neutral cities, the study's authors said, "phasing out fossil energy from transportation, heating and cooling, and other major emitting processes is key." 

How to spatially organize and deploy nature-based solutions (NBS), which can be crucial in tackling the causes and effects of climate change, is a problem that is frequently ignored in energy systems and environmental engineering. "When it comes to lowering carbon emissions, the direct effects—carbon storage in vegetation, soil, and wetlands—have received the greatest attention. However, it is predicted that carbon sequestration, particularly in urban environments, can only offset a small amount of the overall anthropogenic carbon emissions.