Move to boost city’s tree canopy to combat pollution
THE Italian city of Milan has ambitious plans to plant three million new trees by 2030, a move that experts say could offer relief from the city’s muggy weather.
Some ad-hoc projects have already contributed to environmental improvements.
Projects like architect Stefano Boeri’s striking Vertical Forest residential towers, completed in 2014 near the Garibaldi train station, aim to improve not only air quality but quality of life for Milan’s residents.
Mr Boeri created a small island of greenery in the heart of Milan, where his pair of high-rises brim from every balcony with shrubs and trees that absorb carbon dioxide and PM10 particles, a pollutant with links to respiratory ailments and cancer.
“I think the theme of forestation is one of the big challenges that we have today. It is one of the most effective ways we have to fight climate change, because it is like fighting the enemy on its own field,” Mr Boeri said.
“It is effective and it is also democratic, because everyone can plant trees.”
The UN climate summit taking place in Poland has urged cities and regions to help achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on curbing global warming, which include limiting the increase in the planet’s temperature to 2C this century.
Also, the World Economic Forum’s global agenda council has put extending the tree canopy among its top urban initiatives, recognising that small-scale changes can have a major impact on urban areas.
It included helping to lower city temperatures, creating more comfortable micro-climates and mitigating air pollution.
Milan officials estimate the programme to boost the number of trees by 30 per cent in the broader metropolitan area will absorb an additional five million tonnes of CO2 a year, four-fifths of the total produced by Milan, and reduce PM10 particulates by 3,000 tonnes over a decade.
Significantly, it would also reduce temperatures in the city by 2C, they say.
Mr Boeri said the green canopy of the Lombard region’s capital is just 7% of the urban area, well below northern European cities like Frankfurt, at 21.5%, or Amsterdam at nearly 21%.