DETROIT (AP) – Along a busy road in west Detroit, residents stopping for gas, attending places of worship or dropping off their children at daycare have no respite from the sun. But the budding canopy of trees planted this year will change the look and feel of this corridor.

Detroit and other cities are adding trees and green spaces to mitigate the impact of higher average temperatures and longer, hotter heat waves due to climate change.

The United Nations is calling on governments, institutions and investors to prioritize sustainable cooling solutions that do not further warm the planet, including planting shade trees and using reflective building materials. The United Nations Environment Program and the International Finance Corporation published a report on financing these solutions for developing countries during the meetings of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

It is the latest UN effort to help countries and cities cool buildings without having to install air conditioners, raise energy efficiency standards for refrigeration equipment and phase out highly polluting refrigerants. The goal is to achieve near-zero emissions from cooling by 2050.

“We are dealing with record temperatures. We need to protect people from extreme heat,” said Lily Riahi, global coordinator of the UNEP-led Cool Coalition. “But we need to find a way to cool the planet in a way that doesn’t produce more heat.”

Globally, 20% of electricity is used for cooling. If nothing changes, according to UNEP, demand for equipment such as air conditioners and refrigerators is expected to triple by 2050, doubling electricity consumption and increasing fossil fuel emissions.

The Global Cooling Commitment was announced at last year’s UN climate talks, which aims to reduce emissions from cooling. Riahi says the United States, one of 71 countries that support it, is a leader in using nature’s cooling to deal with extreme heat.

A historic investment in urban trees is currently underway. The U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program received $1.5 billion in 2022 under the Inflation Reduction Act. Grant applications poured in as heat records were broken in 2023. Nearly 400 projects were selected for funding.

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Planting and maintenance costs are a major hurdle for most greening projects, said Daniel Metzger, a fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. If a project is changing a previously paved space, removing the asphalt or concrete is usually the largest expense, he said.

Urban areas are often most vulnerable to the harmful health and environmental effects of heatwaves. Urban areas are warmer than the surrounding suburbs – the “urban heat island” effect – due to the large amount of surfaces that absorb heat. Trees and vegetation provide shade while lowering surface and air temperatures.

According to the Coalition for Smart Surfaces, increasing a city’s tree canopy by 10% lowers temperatures by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius). The coalition helps cities integrate cool roofs, green roofs, solar energy, porous pavements and urban trees.

“We cannot solve this problem with air conditioning,” said coalition founder Greg Kats. “The way to solve this problem is to cool the entire city.”

As Detroit grew, the city built tall concrete buildings, industrial areas, commercial corridors, and roads. What was once called the “city of trees” lost thousands of people. Some have been cut out; others died from diseases and pests.

Detroit received $3 million through its urban forestry program to increase tree canopy in neighborhoods with few trees.

Eric Jones, a resident of the Woodbridge neighborhood, said some homeowners don’t want trees because they think squirrels and falling leaves are a nuisance. For Jones, 47, staying cool in the summer is more important than by walking or running with his wife and daughter. Trees also improve air and water quality, help prevent stormwater runoff, absorb carbon dioxide and can increase property values.

“On a day like today when it’s in the 80s or 90s and it’s sunny, it’s just an amazing difference we feel in our neighborhood compared to when we go outside and there aren’t as many trees there,” Jones said .

Crystal Perkins, Detroit’s director of general services, said it will take time for impacts to be felt citywide because immature trees need to grow. Detroit plans to plant 75,000 young trees over five years.

“We know that once we make these changes, there will be benefits for generations to come,” Perkins added.

Meadows can also help cool the area. Grasses and native plants can complement urban cooling approaches because they reflect sunlight and absorb less heat than concrete or asphalt, said Lin Meng, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt University.

A meadow planted in Detroit’s Palmer Park in 2020 has grown to 4 feet tall, with purple asters, yellow goldenrods and black-eyed Susans blooming.

The Forestry Program prioritized communities that have historically been “marginalized, underserved and overburdened by pollution” when selecting projects to receive grants. Undersecretary of Natural Resources and Environment Homer Wilkes said extreme heat disproportionately affects minority and low-income communities with little tree cover.

Researchers found that in the 1930s, when financial services were shut down due to discriminatory housing policies known as redlining, tree canopies were smaller in communities inhabited primarily by racial and ethnic minorities. A 2021 NPJ Urban Sustainability study of 37 U.S. cities found almost twice the tree canopy in predominantly white communities in the 1930s.

The ranking system used to assess credit risk reflects today’s tree cover, lead author Dexter Locke said in an interview.

“Urban heat fatalities may increase with a changing climate,” Locke said. “The people who can cope the least cannot afford air conditioning. So we are dealing with a real double environmental injustice.”

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, nonprofit organizations are planting citrus trees around public buildings. Two community groups, with the support of a $6 million U.S. Forest Service grant, are launching an apprenticeship program to teach dozens of young people how to plant and care for trees to expand urban canopy, fight food insecurity and increase environmental awareness.

“This is a large-scale landscape change for the ZIP code,” said Sage Roberts Foley, executive director of Baton Rouge Green.

Baton Roots mobile farm manager Jacquel Curry, 29, appreciates the citrus trees planted in his neighborhood because they provide shade and cooling that can lower electricity bills, as well as fresh fruit when it ripens.

“The whole goal is to reverse the bad domino effect of the lack of trees,” Curry said. “We’re trying to take it in a different direction.”