Tentative Tree Planting 'decades Overdue' In Sweltering Athens

Athens, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Apr, 2025) On a cloudy spring morning in one of Athens' most densely inhabited districts, thousands of fresh saplings dotting a small hilltop park mark a fledgling effort to tackle crippling heat that critics say is long overdue.

This is Athens' first "micro-forest", part of an initiative by recently elected mayor Haris Doukas to plant 5,000 trees annually in the thickly concreted city, where in summer the thermostat routinely tops 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

Planting vegetation is crucial to help cities beat the heat, scientists say, as climate change stokes hotter and more intense heatwaves and the so-called "urban heat island" effect amplifies temperatures among tightly packed buildings.

But the knee-high plants in Alepotrypa park ("foxhole" in Greek) in Athens' Kypseli neighbourhood will need around a decade to mature.

They are "too little, too late," said Katerina Christoforaki, an architect and urban planner at the National Technical University of Athens, who has worked on past city redevelopment projects.

Athens' last major overhaul came when it was preparing to host the 2004 Olympic Games. But most of the attention fell on stadium construction and transport, not greenery.

"We haven't given the proper attention on reducing vehicle traffic or upgrading building infrastructure," she said.

Most of the capital and its roads were built with materials that are over 40 years old, with buildings absorbing heat in the summer and offering poor insulation in winter, she said.

Meanwhile, a number of key public urban planning agencies were defunded and sidelined during the near-decade long Greek debt crisis, she said, adding that most of the emphasis today is on boosting tourism infrastructure.

Athens' deputy mayor for climate, Nikos Chrysogelos, is one of the country's most experienced ecology activists and a former Greens European Parliament lawmaker.

On a table in his cluttered office, there are maps showing temperatures in each district of the capital and the areas most vulnerable to heatwaves.

Chrysogelos agrees that Athens "lost an opportunity" to strengthen its defences against heat around the time it hosted the 2004 Olympics.

"From 2000 onwards we could have done much more, because we knew the scale of the problem," he told AFP.