Tree Huggers

Our research calculated the death rates of urban inhabitants across 93 European cities between June and August 2015.

In 2015, Gothenburg in Sweden recorded no premature UHI deaths, while urban heat was responsible for 32 premature deaths per 100,000 people in the Romanian city Cluj-Napoca.

Tree planting programmes must therefore encourage residents to plant trees.

So increasing tree cover to 30% may be challenging for some European cities.

Incorporating urban green infrastructure into cities should make them more resilient to climate change.

Preserving existing trees and complementing tree planting schemes with other measures that reduce the intensity of UHIs, such as reducing car use, are similarly important.

Our study suggests that by increasing tree coverage, premature UHI deaths in European cities can be reduced.