by Metropol | September 2, 2026 8:33 am
This year, the effects of climate breakdown are really making climate change more tangible around the globe.
We’ve been watching Western Europe experience its biggest heatwave in recorded history, resulting in 20,000 deaths, massive wildfires, droughts and impacts on food production. This year’s El Niño will intensify heat and drought for Christchurch and the whole Canterbury region.
At Christchurch Conversations in August, we heard from Dr Rebecca Peers on how the urban heat island effect makes our city even hotter, which increases health risks and damages infrastructure. The way we design our cities matters: from cool roofs and permeable surfaces to blue-green infrastructure and increased canopy cover, there are a number of ways to cool things down.
Toby Chapman, the city’s Urban Forest Manager, shared plans on how to increase our urban forest, but said finding space to plant trees in every neighbourhood is challenging. The good news is that there are many examples of denser cities worldwide that have a higher canopy cover, so we can achieve it. Our current housing development model can make increasing density alongside our canopy challenging: we need to plan for trees earlier in the process to ensure that they have space and the right soil.
While improving city design and increasing canopy cover are vital, ultimately, to address a hotter world we need to turn off the fossil fuel tap.
Source URL: https://metropol.co.nz/urban-heat-jessica-halliday/
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