London's Urban Forest Faces Severe Threat as Climate Stress Rises
A new Kew Gardens report warns that over 70% of London's trees could be at risk from climate change, with many already showing signs of stress.
A recent assessment by Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, conducted with the Greater London Authority, examined a sample of over a million public trees and concluded that a large share are ill-suited to the climate expected by 2090, with 62% classified as having low suitability and nearly 11% deemed vulnerable. The report projects that as many as 73% of London’s eight million trees could be at risk of dying due to climate change without emission cuts.
Recent extreme weather, including five successive heatwaves and a record-dry July, has already stressed the canopy, causing branch failures, leaf loss and the death of 400 trees at Kew in 2022. To draw attention, Kew displayed a red-painted oak during Climate Action Week. Botanists are now considering planting species better adapted to hotter, drier conditions, looking to climates like Barcelona’s as a future model for the city.
