Green urban spaces can be thought about in two ways - both as a cost-effective and multi-functional climate solution and as a carbon sink. Carbon sinks play a significant role in reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and as cities are key in reaching carbon neutrality, effectively enhancing carbon sequestration in urban green spaces is essential to achieve this goal.

A recent set of policy recommendations, produced by CO-CARBON, is helping cities address this goal in a framework known as carbon-smartness. The recommendations outline five ways to help enhance carbon sequestration and improve ecosystem services across green urban structures.

First cities should reframe about their carbon footprint and instead think about their carbon handprint, focusing on positive climate impacts. This means identifying the climate impacts of green structures, setting binding city-level targets, and estimating the carbon handprint in the life cycle assessment of building projects. Doing so will increase ecosystem services such as mitigating extreme climate events like heat waves and flooding. Next, considering the amount, quality, and lifestyle of urban green spaces can influence their effectiveness as carbon sinks. This includes both existing green spaces and new spaces. Similarly, carbon-smart practices should be considered for landscape construction and management. This could entail preserving existing soil and developing practices for handling leaf litter and reconsidering practices such as lawn mowing as it relates to biodiversity and emissions.

It is crucial, as well, to have community buy-in around green urban spaces so it is important to consider social sustainability as a part of climate solutions. This means making sure people understand the benefits these spaces bring, but requires considering the element of justice as well, such as who benefits from carbon-smartness and who can participate in decision making processes. Lastly, utilising efficient steering instruments such as life-cycle assessments in green urban planning can bring more climate benefits.

By implementing measures such as these, cities across Europe can further enhance green urban spaces as carbon sinks and support them in their mission toward climate neutrality.

CO-CARBON, which ICLEI is advising as part of the project’s advisory board, is an interdisciplinary research project that examines carbon sequestration of urban green spaces and creates solutions for planning, implementing and managing carbon-smart urban green infrastructure. ICLEI is making sure that the crucial outcomes of CO-CARBON are being considered in key research and innovation communities such as the ones around the flagship projects NetZero Cities and NetworkNature.

To read the Policy Recommendations in full, click here.

To learn more about ICLEI’s work around biodiversity and nature-based solutions, click here.