Esperon-Rodriguez, ManuelGallagher, Rachael V.Lenoir, JonathanBarradas, Victor L.Beaumont, Linda J.Calfapietra, CarloCariñanos, PalomaLivesley, Stephen J.Iungman, TamaraManoli, GabrieleMarchin, Renee M.McPhearson, TimonMessier, ChristianNieuwenhuijsen, Mark J.Power, Sally A.Rymer, Paul D.Tjoelker, Mark G.2025-06-182025-06-182025Esperon-Rodriguez M, Gallagher RV, Lenoir J, Barradas VL, Beaumont LJ, Calfapietra C, et al. Urban heat in global cities and the role of nature-based solutions in mitigating future climate risks. Environ Res Climate. 2025;4:023001. DOI: 10.1088/2752-5295/adcb612752-5295http://hdl.handle.net/10230/70715Approximately eight billion people are living on Earth today with more than half (55%, ∼4.2 billion) living in cities—a proportion predicted to increase to 70% (∼6.6. billion) by 2050. As the human population grows, urban residents will face increasingly extreme temperatures under future climate change, which will affect human well-being, health, and mortality. However, nature-based solutions offer promising strategies to mitigate these impacts. Here, we analyst future projections of the maximum temperature of the warmest month, as a proxy for extreme heat exposure across 5646 cities in 218 countries. We show that by mid-century, this climate metric is projected to increase by an average of +1.7 °C (± 0.5 °C), with the largest increases (∼4 °C) projected to occur in mid-to-high latitude cities of Europe, North America, and Australia. We highlight the urgent need to adopt nature-based solutions to mitigate projected increases in urban heat and contribute to net-zero CO2 emissions goals.application/pdfeng© 2025 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/adcb61Climate changeClimate riskClimate exposureGlobal warmingHuman societiesUrban areasUrban forestsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess