Informações sobre a revolução de adaptação climática de Paris

Paris is adding color, with boulevards, parks and multiple climate plans 

The City of Paris is famous for its boulevards, bistros and unmistakable character. But behind the historic façades, a nature revolution is taking place that increasingly attracting international attention. Streets, squares and parks are being redesigned and new green spaces are being created, gradually - but significantly - reintegrating nature into the urban landscape.

The capital is becoming greener – and for good reason. With its Climate Plan 2024–2030, the city has developed a master plan to make Paris more resilient, vibrant, and in tune with nature. But what does that mean in practice? It's not just about new parks; it's about an interconnected concept. Trees, schoolyards, measures to promote biodiversity, rainwater management and climate adaptation strategies will work together to prepare the city for future challenges. The goal is to create a city that is more resilient, healthier and equitable.

More nature despite the many paving stones

Paris is a densely populated city. Space is scarce. The city is exercising creativity to solve this problem:

• A mini urban forest in the middle of the city? Yes, on Place de Catalogne. Can you imagine a small forest in the middle of your city?
• School Streets: By 2026, 100 streets outside schools are set to become car-free and greener. Children can play safely, and the neighbourhood benefits from new recreational areas that serve as real meeting places in the middle of the city.
• A three-hectare green space is being created in the east of the city. It will offer recreation and leisure opportunities, as well as providing a habitat for plants and animals.

Paris was an early adopter of environmental protection. Pesticides were banned in parks and gardens as early as the 1990s, long before this became a nationwide requirement. Since 2015, the ban has also applied to cemeteries. What has been the result? Foxes and other wild animals are returning. Who would have thought that you could encounter wild animals in the middle of Paris?

Of course, more greenery also brings challenges. Trees need water, meadows need maintenance, and people must accept spontaneous vegetation. Not everyone immediately realises that unmown meadows and wildflowers are beneficial for the city and its residents. Fostering nature in a city is thus not only a planning challenge, it is an acceptance challenge.

People are getting involved – and that's crucial!

Participation plays a central role in Paris. In addition to experts and the city administration, NGOs, scientists and citizens were also involved in the Biodiversity Strategy 2030. Online consultations, public discussions and workshops ensured that as many voices as possible were heard. But what does this look like in everyday life?

Through the 'Embellir votre quartier' initiative, residents can actively participate in deciding which streets or neighbourhoods should be greened next. They can contribute their own ideas. Which tree species should be planted? Which places would be suitable for green retreats? This commitment is particularly evident in the School Streets initiative. Parents, teachers and children collaborate to design car-free zones outside schools. They also take over the maintenance later.

The initiative has a positive impact that goes beyond mere renaturing: it fosters a sense of responsibility, strengthens social bonds and creates a stronger sense of community. Those who get involved can see how urban planning can directly change their neighbourhood. And let's be honest – who wouldn't want to see their ideas suddenly brought to life in the heart of the city?

Paris as a laboratory for the city of the future

Paris is focusing on more than just individual parks and street trees. Instead, the city aims to become a laboratory for urban sustainability, striving to be dense, vibrant and socially just, as well as green and climate-resilient. To achieve this, it is relying on several interlinked comprehensive plans:

• The Bioclimatic Urban Master Plan: This plan sets out rules for increasing greenery in public and private spaces.
• The Biodiversity Strategy 2030 protects species and habitats, and includes specific actions for flora and fauna.
• The Tree Plan 2021–2026 involves planting 170,000 new trees on streets, in squares and forests, and along ring roads. These measures will improve the urban climate and create habitats for animals.
• The Paris Rain Plan aims to implement smart rainwater management to increase the city's resilience to climate change and protect it from flooding.
• Resilience Strategy: The city is to be made crisis-proof against heatwaves, flooding and social inequalities.

What Paris is currently building is therefore more than just an environmental programme. It is a laboratory for the city of the future: dense, vibrant and socially just, as well as green and climate-resilient. Once the plans have been implemented by 2030, Paris will not only be known for its culture and history, but also for a new kind of urban life in which trees, boulevards, parks, squares and people coexist with nature as a matter of course.

Fonte: Urban Nature Plans+ 

New Report: Paris Tomorrow

Paris was the birthplace of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which laid the foundations for a global commitment to climate protection. Since then, the City of Paris has prioritised the fight against climate change. By transforming public spaces to reduce motorised traffic, carrying out a large-scale renovation of buildings and committing to an ambitious energy transition to promote renewable energies and move away from fossil fuels, Paris has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 26%. Paris has published a retrospective report, “Paris of Tomorrow” (“Paris Demain”), which reflects on sustainability actions implemented in 2024 - a landmark year for the ecological transition in Paris.

The new edition of Paris Tomorrow aims to monitor and analyze ecological and social transition in the city. Structured around 30 strategic indicators, it highlights the progress achieved so far.

For example:

• One-third reduction in CO₂ emissions since 2004 (start of GHG monitoring)
• From 35 to 45% decrease concerning the main air pollutants over the past 10 years
• 1,500 km of cycling routes developed across the city
• 1,500 cooling islands accessible to residents by 2025
• More than 130,000 trees planted since 2020
• 45% organic products served in municipal collective catering in 2024

The report also showcases concrete actions implemented in Paris in 2024, with a special focus on the Olympic Games.

Together with an online open data platform providing an update on the main indicators (in French), these two tools are designed to support decision-making, enhance transparency, and foster collective action toward carbon neutrality and resilience in Paris.

Read the report to learn more about Paris’s ecologic transition.

Fonte: Urban Nature Plans

Paris shows how citizen-driven greening can make cities cooler and fairer

As European cities prepare Urban Nature Plans, one insight from ICLEI Member Paris (France) stands out: urban greening only succeeds when residents help shape it.

Over the past decade, Paris has expanded tree planting, opened green and blue corridors – connecting parks, waterways and former railway lines, allowing flora and fauna to move freely across the metropolis – and has restored water quality in the Seine. As a result, species diversity has grown tenfold since the 1970s – and Parisians can now swim in the river once again.

The city’s reimagining of its urban landscape was made possible through an ambitious biodiversity agenda, beginning with its 2011 Biodiversity Plan and continuing through today’s 2025 Biodiversity Strategy. Milestones include greening schoolyards, transforming 10% of city streets into pedestrian-friendly spaces and planting 150,000 trees by 2025.

But the city says the biggest gains come from working directly with communities, especially in areas most affected by heat and pollution. Through participatory budgeting, social housing safeguards and community-led design, Paris ensures greening efforts enhance – rather than displace – local communities.

UNP+ supports this shift by helping cities develop Urban Nature Plans that combine data, equity and public participation. Paris’s experience shows how mapping heat risks, identifying biodiversity gaps and involving citizens early can guide smarter investment.

The city’s advice for others is simple: start with a shared vision, engage people from the beginning and treat nature as a common good. Urban nature plans work best when cities and citizens act together.

Hear more about Paris’ successes in the most recent episode of Local Voices for Sustainability: How Paris is growing into a garden city, in which host Laura Schubert (ICLEI Europe) speaks with Céleste Roberol, International Projects and Outreach Manager at the Agency for Urban Ecology for the City of Paris, about how the French capital is redefining its relationship with nature.

Fonte: Urban Nature Plans 


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Reclaiming the City: How Paris Is Transforming Public Space Through Pedestrianization and Greening

By Create Streets

Cities around the world are facing a common challenge: how to adapt dense, historically car-oriented urban environments, to the social and environmental issues of the 21st century. Local governments need to rethink the role of streets and squares as common public spaces.

Under its recent urban policies and a strategy begun with Anne Hildago’s first term as Mayor of Paris a decade ago, Paris has pioneered a people-first approach that integrates pedestrianization, greening, and community empowerment. The Parisian method is not simply about repaving streets or planting trees for their aesthetic value, it is a structural shift in how cities function, how residents move, and how communities interact. It reflects a broader ambition: to create healthier, more resilient, and more inclusive urban environments.

From Car-Centered Streets to People-Centered Spaces

Like most major cities, Paris was designed for the car in the 20th century. Wide boulevards and busy intersections prioritized motorway flow over public space, limited to narrow sidewalks, pinched between buildings and parking lanes. Yet over the past decade, Paris has undertaken one of the most ambitious programmes in Europe to reverse that trend.

Since 2014, Paris has restructured mobility around people rather than vehicles, through a network of pedestrian zones, green spaces and “calmed” streets, designed for people in everyday neighborhoods.

In Paris, street space, once used for parking or driving is now reimagined for multiple uses: walking, play, and social life. This shift is guided by the principle that reclaiming streets fosters not only mobility, but also community. Pedestrianization is at the heart of this shift. As traffic decreases and green corridors expand, Paris shows that urban vitality and environmental sustainability can reinforce each other.

By limiting or removing through-traffic in certain areas, cities significantly lower local air pollution, and create safer and more pleasant environments for walking, shopping, gathering, and cultural activities. It also stimulates local economic activity: businesses in pedestrian-friendly districts often benefit from increased foot traffic and longer visitor dwell time.

©Instagram @christophenajdovski – Before/After: Mouton-Duvernet Street (14th arrondissement), where a road used to cut the park in two.

Beautify Your Neighborhood: Local Change, Citywide Impact

At the heart of the Parisian shift lies “Embellir votre quartier” (“Beautify Your Neighborhood”), a participatory program inviting residents to co-design their own streets. Operating in 2 to 7 sub-districts in each arrondissement (approximately 1 km²), the initiative empowers citizens to propose and prioritize projects such as wider pavements, new trees, pedestrianized squares and bike lanes.

This hyperlocal approach turns planning into a democratic process. Instead of imposing a uniform citywide template, Parisian officials work with local communities to respond to specific environmental, mobility, and social needs, sharing budgetary issues transparently. Each project, while modest in scale, becomes a piece of a broader metropolitan puzzle connecting active travel routes and green networks.

For example, a previously congested street in the 13th arrondissement might now feature school play areas, greening and bike parking spots, chosen through workshops with residents.

Transforming public space inevitably raises concerns. Shop owners may fear reduced accessibility, residents may worry about traffic displacement, and drivers may perceive restrictions as constraints. Transparent communication about objectives, timelines and budget, and participatory processes facilitate acceptance and result in a tangible sense of ownership: citizens not only use public space but help shape it. This participatory philosophy has become one of the city’s most effective tools for civic engagement and ecological renewal.

©Instagram @christophenajdovski – Before/After: Dr Lecène Street (13th arrdt.) which was redesigned as part of the Beautify Your Neighborhood initiative

©Instagram @christophenajdovski – Before/After: Meaux Street (19th arrdt.) which was redesigned as part of the Beautify Your Neighborhood initiative

The Tree Strategy: Greening as Infrastructure

The Paris Tree Strategy has made possible the planting of 150,000 trees and the greening of 370 streets in six years. Furthermore the strategy committed to diversifying species and layouts to maximize nature’s ecological benefits. It embodies the transformation of Paris from a city with gardens to a “garden city” (“ville-jardin”).

This “garden city” vision complements the pedestrian’s everyday journeys across a city which sorely lacks green spaces and has been demonstrated to be the deadliest in Europe during heatwaves. Every new project – from redesigned avenues to new schoolyards – integrates shade and biodiversity corridors.

Tree-planting efforts are deliberately concentrated in working-class districts and social housing areas, neighborhoods where green space and air quality have historically lagged, particularly in the densely populated north and east of the city.

370 streets greened in Paris since 2020 ©Victor Baron

Paris reframes greenery as essential infrastructure, vital for resilience and public health: high-quality public green areas are critical for well-being and social cohesion.

Oasis Schoolyards and School Streets: Learning and Living in a Shared Urban Space

Greening initiatives also create opportunities for rethinking the design of school environments. More than 200 schoolyards have been redesigned as green spaces, some of them serving both students during the day and residents outside school hours. This dual function maximizes land use in dense districts and strengthens community ties.

Another innovative dimension of Paris’s transformation is found in its approach to School Streets (“Rues aux écoles”). Over 300 school streets have been redesigned as low-traffic or car-free areas where children can arrive safely on foot or by bike, away from congestion and emissions, and when it’s possible, alongside green infrastructure.

More than a child-safety project, School Streets visibly embody the “garden city”. They teach future generations that urban mobility and sustainability are compatible and that the quality of the urban environment matters to daily life.

©Instagram @christophenajdovski – Before/After: Le Vau Street (20th arrdt.) redesigned into a School Street

They also embody a political method that reflects how Anne Hidalgo has brought about change throughout her decade as Mayor of Paris: Set radical and high ambition goals: here with School Streets, the pedestrianization of every street in front of a school.

 
Test the design: from the very first School Street and to this day, the Paris officials and political leaders observed what was not working and what was supported by residents and were not afraid to adjust
Keep repeating popular, local interventions in order to gradually transform the whole city: as the trials progressed, Parisians responded enthusiastically to some of these street transformations and began asking for those changes on their own streets. This allowed the City of Paris to identify the measures that both advanced its objectives and won public support, creating the conditions to roll them out at scale and deliver ambitious programmes (such as the transformation of 300 school streets.)

From Local Actions to Structural Change

Over time, these individual interventions accumulate into a structural transformation.

Results have been striking: as cycling infrastructure has expanded traffic volumes have declined on certain corridors and air pollution has decreased significantly, green spaces have multiplied and the Canopy Index has increased with them (from 21% in 2018 to 25% in 2025). A new urban ecosystem is taking shape.

Streets that once felt dominated by vehicles have become lively social spaces. Neighborhoods have gained an identity and vibrancy through redesigned plazas and tree-lined avenues that people then make their own and want to see multiplied.

Average annual NO2 concentration: in Paris, air pollution has decreased by 40% in 10 years

©AirParif

Conclusion: The Parisian Way of Reclaiming the City

Bringing together bottom-up innovation and top-down strategy, Paris is bringing about a radical transformation of public space as well as redefining the social contract of the city. By empowering citizens to beautify their neighborhoods, investing in a tree planting strategy, and creating safer and greener school environments, Paris illustrates how 21st century cities can reconcile density with livability.

Political commitment in Paris proves that reclaiming streets for people and nature can produce not only cleaner air and quieter roads but also stronger, more connected communities.

The decisive victory of Emmanuel Grégoire in the 2026 mayoral election of the last few days signals continuity for the city’s urban agenda as the new mayor is set to embrace the legacy of Anne Hidalgo’s policies. He is set to continue the ongoing transformation of public spaces and mobility around Paris. This will not only persist but deepen: the pedestrianization of a further 1000 streets, the transformation of 10 avenues into parks, the extension of the park on the Banks of the Seine, with climate adaptation remaining a central priority. In this context, Paris is poised to further integrate environmental resilience into everyday urban life, accelerating its transition toward arguably the most climate-ready city in Europe.

The process begins small: one tree planted, one sidewalk reimagined, one street redesigned. Yet these local interventions accumulate into a profound structural change. In doing so, Paris is sending out a powerful signal about collective priorities: health over speed, quality of life over traffic throughput and community over congestion.

Fonte: Create Streets