January 2022 – December 2023
235 000

Project intro

Niger’s capital Niamey is one of the hottest places on Earth. Climate projections show that Niamey could become exposed to conditions of deadly heat on more than 200 days per year. Extreme heat not only affects mortality and morbidity, but also building (cooling) energy demand, damage to infrastructure, the operation of critical services such as hospitals, and labour productivity (estimated to cause a 4-5% loss of Niger’s GDP already today). Importantly, in the city Niamey extreme heat is exacerbated by the urban heat island phenomenon.

Highlights

  • Based on existing urban micro-climate modelling results (previous project), we will produce compelling and widely accessible evidence of the critical role of urban green infrastructure in underpinning resilience to present and future climate hazards.
  • Train local stakeholders in the microclimatic monitoring of urban trees, using advanced yet simple and robust devices (heat cameras, soil moisture sensors)
  • Assess the carbon sequestration potential of urban trees, and ways to value this through market mechanisms (carbon credits)
  • Employ the evidence regarding the role of urban trees as a climate resilience measure to underpin applications to international climate finance programmes.

Watch VITO's Niels Souverijns talk about Niger's Niamey Climate Forest project

Project video 

Objective

The goal is to support Niamey’s action plan for massive tree planting as a climate resilience measure, to alleviate climate extremes such as heat and drought. While the city of  Niamey has already launched ambitious plans in this respect, financial and technical barriers are hampering progress. We aim to address these barriers, using scientific results and capacity building as a leverage. 

Partners

Project funded by International Climate Finance from the Government of Flanders + own funding of project partners