Global urban reforestation can be an important natural climate solution

This paper presents the results of the modelling of the global potential and limits of urban reforestation worldwide, The findings of this study show that there is a total of 10.9 ± 2.8 Mha of urban green areas across 7,595 cities, which are potentially available for reforestation. This represents 17.6% of the extent of all city areas, and amounted to a climate mitigation potential of 82.4 ± 25.7 MtCO2e y-1 (1.1% of total city carbon emissions), which is equivalent to 5.2% of the maximum biophysical potential of reforestation outside urban areas. The result of the study show that this mitigation potential can contribute substantially to local carbon reduction or mitigation targets.