Measures to halt the climate and biodiversity crises are proposed by promoting fair recitizenship in cities. The plan favors policies that secure the right to housing and prevent residents from being expelled from their neighborhoods. This is the core of the report titled Right to nature, right to the city, produced by Friends of the Earth and the Consumers and Users Federation CECU.
The authors warn about the vulnerability many face when green spaces are created in low income neighborhoods, noting that without housing protections this can trigger evictions in the midst of climate action. The study emphasizes that climate change intensifies housing risks and that policy design must address both environmental goals and housing stability.
The report maps out major urban injustices and shows how they relate to nature, while proposing emergency policy measures. It gathers several perspectives on social inequality, the city, and its bond with green spaces.
Purposeful action in the document links access to green spaces with access to decent housing. The authors assert that timely, tangible measures are increasingly urgent to soften the worst effects of climate disruption and biodiversity loss.
They underline that high temperatures contribute to thousands of deaths each year in Spain. Cities are presented as key arenas for movement: while they cover only a small fraction of the Earth, they host much of the population and drive most greenhouse gas emissions.
right of nature
Renaturalizing cities is viewed as a win for both sides. It supports adaptation and climate mitigation by expanding green spaces that lower local temperatures and provide gathering areas, recreation, and mental and physical health benefits.
Despite nature’s importance to human life, the study notes stark disparities in access to green spaces based on income, a gap that calls for immediate correction.
Concerns are raised about the lack of ambitious renaturalization plans and the risk that such projects could raise housing costs. The authors warn about green gentrification and the potential erosion of neighborhood networks and the right to nature themselves.
Rental prices should be controlled and housing access protected to ensure the renaturalization efforts proceed without leaving anyone behind. The report outlines emergency measures that require coordinated action across all levels of administration, guided by two main criteria. The first is urban renaturalization by 2030 aligned with World Health Organization standards, aiming for at least 30 percent vegetation and ensuring every home is within 300 meters of a green area. The second criterion centers on safeguarding nature rights so that renaturalization projects do not fuel real estate speculation.
Community Climate Shelters
To reach these goals, the report from Friends of the Earth and CECU advocates several key measures. It calls for stabilizing rents, limiting rapid growth of tourist areas, preventing the removal of mature trees, and recognizing community climate shelters as essential components of urban planning.
Other recommendations include maintaining tree pits over time, ensuring they are populated with healthy trees, urgently developing urban greening plans in cities with more than 20,000 residents, and balancing green space across neighborhoods to raise development in lower income regions.
Additional steps involve equitably distributing municipal maintenance and equipment between wealthier and poorer areas, prioritizing interventions in low-income zones as compensation for the most vulnerable, promoting urban and peri-urban agriculture, and recognizing and growing community-led environmental commons such as self-managed parks and neighborhood gardens.
They propose robust rules to regulate rents nationwide and prohibit evictions without alternatives to housing. They call for urgent actions in the tourist rental market that protect community structures, impose penalties for vacant dwellings, create channels for social rent implementation, and impose a moratorium on urban growth while the housing vacancy rate stays under 10 percent.
Friends of the Earth and CECU urge public authorities to adopt these measures promptly to adapt to climate change and safeguard housing access for all.
Reference report: Tierra.org, informe-derecho-a-la-naturaleza-derecho-a-la-ciudad.pdf