Imagine walking through the bustling streets of Sharjah, where a green transformation is unfolding around you. Once arid spaces now feature increased greenery, with parks and gardens providing some relief from the heat. This is no accident—the city is on a mission to beautify itself and tackle climate change, one park at a time.

Today, Sharjah has 68 gardens that produced 17 million flowers in 2022, with thousands more planted along streets and in public squares. The city’s nurseries are busy growing decorative and fruit-bearing trees, and in a true community effort, they’re giving away seedlings to residents for free. These initiatives have expanded Sharjah’s green spaces to 22 million square metres, growing by over 12% each year.

Urban parks are essential in the fight against climate change, especially in the Middle East, where cities have long experienced extreme heat. These green spaces cool the air, absorb carbon, and improve air quality. Cities like Sharjah, already adapted to high temperatures, are leading the way in climate solutions, offering lessons for the rest of the world.

According to scientists who study the world’s climate, August 2024 was one of the hottest summer months ever recorded. The average global temperature hit 16.82°C, which is 0.71°C warmer than the typical August from 1991 to 2020. Even more striking, it was 1.51°C above pre-industrial levels. This marks the 13th time in the last 14 months that global temperatures have been over 1.5°C above what they used to be, showing how much our planet is heating up.

Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, says that in 2024, we’ve seen the hottest June and August, the hottest day ever, and the hottest summer in the Northern Hemisphere on record. In all likelihood, 2024 will be the hottest year yet.

Climate change affects our health in many ways: it can lead to breathing and heart problems, diseases from pests like ticks and mosquitoes, water and food-related illnesses, and even injuries or deaths. It’s also been linked to worsening mental health. Rising temperatures have become a global issue, with cities worldwide experiencing hot weather in recent decades. Meanwhile, the Middle East has been thriving in the heat for generations. These sun-soaked regions have learned to adapt and innovate under extreme conditions, and their strategies could be a game-changer for other countries battling the heat of climate change.

When we zoom in on urban landscapes, we start to see some surprising patterns in how cities handle the heat. A 2021 study by Qatar University compared Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh, Doha, Manama, Kuwait, and Muscat, finding that densely built areas can be several degrees cooler than surrounding bare land. This happens because buildings bounce sunlight away and create shade. Meanwhile, bare land soaks up sunlight like a sponge, heating up faster and staying hot longer.

But here’s the twist: adding green spaces cools these urban hotspots even further, revealing a simple yet powerful tool in the fight against urban heat. Parks, green roofs, and other vegetation effectively reduce urban heat, providing a practical solution for the warming planet.