WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
A two-decade analysis of 3,806 urban clusters and 4,855 meteorological stations finds cooling returns to added green infrastructure can saturate in the Global North, while many Global South cities lose or fail to gain greenery amid warming.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Judge urban landscape investments by actual thermal protection, canopy survival and distribution—not greener pixels alone.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
Observational, global-scale relationships do not show that individual local plantings cannot cool or establish a causal project effect. Online Oct 20, PNAS issue Oct 27.
SOURCE
PNAS — Leng et al. (20 Oct 2026 online)
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