The second edition of the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) Global Cooling Watch Report 2025, presented at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, features on the cover of its third chapter, “The Sustainable Cooling Hierarchy and Tiered Access”, an image of Milan’s Bosco Verticale, a project by Boeri Studio, as a sustainable example of urban heat mitigation and cooling energy demand management.
The report delves into one of the decade’s most pressing challenges: rising temperatures, increasing demand for cooling, and stark inequalities in access to cooling solutions. It also proposes adopting a Sustainable Cooling Pathway, which could reduce emissions by 64% (down to 2.6 billion tons of CO₂ equivalent) compared to projected 2050 levels. When combined with a rapid decarbonization of the global energy sector, residual cooling emissions could fall by up to 97% compared to a business-as-usual scenario.
In this context, Bosco Verticale, with its 800 trees, 4,500 shrubs, and 20,000 plants belonging to around one hundred different species—distributed according to the solar exposure of the façades—constitutes an autonomous ecosystem. Unlike “mineral” façades made of glass or stone, it does not reflect or amplify sunlight, but filters it, generating a pleasant internal microclimate and positively influencing the surrounding area. The shading and evapotranspiration of the vegetation help regulate climatic conditions, reducing humidity and lowering surface temperatures by up to 30°C, which in turn reduces indoor cooling energy consumption and lowers apartment temperatures by 2–3°C.
To read the full report: https://www.unep.org/resources/global-cooling-watch-2025