[0:00]Paris is famous for its food, museums and landmarks, but there's also some less desirable things, like heavy traffic, poor air quality, and most notably, a lack of green space. But that's all about to change as the capital of fashion gets the mother of all makeovers, one that will see it challenge for the title of Europe's greenest city.
[0:27]If there's one thing Paris doesn't have, it's enough greenery. Just 9.5% of its land is dedicated to gardens and green areas, lower than any other major European city. At 33%, London beats it three times over, while in Oslo, a whopping 68% of the city is green space. Paris doesn't just want to climb off the bottom of this league table, it's set its sights on competing for the title. By 2030, it plans to have planted areas covering half the city, everything from rooftop gardens to entire new parks. In total, over 170,000 more trees are expected to be added in the next five years. Several projects have been put forward to help achieve this goal, but one kind of stands out above the rest. The Champs-Élysées, the city's most famous street, is set to be transformed into this urban garden. It involves removing road lanes and replacing them with pedestrianized green space, adding tree tunnels to enhance air quality, and introducing dedicated cycle lanes. So, why the major facelift? Well, it might be a hit with the tourists, but the locals are no longer quite so keen. Independent businesses have been replaced by large chain stores, and air pollution's become a big issue, with tens of thousands of vehicles passing through each day. Nitrogen dioxide levels here are double the limits set out by the World Health Organization. Pedestrianizing much of the roadway would halve the amount of traffic and dramatically improve air quality. The $300 million US scheme is part of a wider plan to make Paris greener, with less cars and better air quality. Although work on the Champs-Élysées won't begin until after the 2024 Olympics. In the meantime, other similar projects are due to get underway across the city, including one that will spruce up the biggest attraction of all, the Eiffel Tower. Here, a new park will be built around the base of the iconic structure, turning more than 100 acres of land into one of the largest areas of green space in the whole of Paris. Paris has already gone green in other ways too. In 2020, the world's largest urban farm opened here, around 7% of the city is going completely car-free and almost half of the street level parking spaces are being removed. That's around 60,000 overall. The fact is Paris has been under pressure to act for some time, and not just because of poor air quality and traffic. It's needed to clean itself up ahead of the Olympics and it was here that the international treaty on climate change, the aptly named Paris Agreement, was signed back in 2015. Many have been pleasantly surprised by the length Paris is going to to freshen up its image, a move that will hopefully inspire other cities to embark on a green renaissance of their own.
