Green spaces provide substantial but unequal urban cooling globally
Climate warming disproportionately impacts countries in the Global South by increasing extreme heat exposure. However, geographic disparities in adaptation capacity are unclear. Here, we assess global inequality in green spaces, which urban residents critically rely on to mitigate outdoor heat stress. We use remote sensing data to quantify daytime cooling by urban greenery in the warm seasons across the ~500 largest cities globally. We show a striking contrast, with Global South cities having ~70% of the cooling capacity of cities in the Global North (2.5 ± 1.0 °C vs. 3.6 ± 1.7 °C). A similar gap occurs for the cooling adaptation benefits received by an average resident in these cities (2.2 ± 0.9 °C vs. 3.4 ± 1.7 °C). This cooling adaptation inequality is due to discrepancies in green space quantity and quality between cities in the Global North and South, shaped by socioeconomic and natural factors. Our analyses further suggest a vast potential for enhancing cooling adaptation while reducing global inequality.
Authors
- Weiqi Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7323-4906)
- Kai Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1587-3317)
- Robert R. Dunn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6030-4837)
- Jesse F. Abrams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0411-8519)
- William J. Ripple (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6557-3043)
- Timothy M. Lenton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6725-7498)
- Chi Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1841-9032)
- Zhaowu Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4576-4541)
- Shuqing N. Teng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7431-2128)
- Jens‐Christian Svenning (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3415-0862)
- Yuxiang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1575-3692)
Institutions
- Oregon State University (US)
- Nanjing Tech University (CN)
- North Carolina State University (US)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- Fudan University (CN)
- University of Michigan (US)
- Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Nanjing University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-09-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51355-0
- Citations
- 159
- Primary Topic
- Urban Heat Island Mitigation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 32.71
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Open Society Foundations
- Villum Fonden
- National Research Foundation
- Danmarks Grundforskningsfond
- National Natural Science Foundation of China