DETROIT — Along a busy road in west Detroit, there’s little respite from the sun for residents stopping for gasoline, attending places of worship or bringing children to daycare. But a budding canopy of trees planted this year will change the look and feel of this corridor.

Detroit and other cities are adding trees and green spaces as one way to blunt the impact of warmer average temperatures and heat waves that are longer and hotter due to climate change.

The United Nations is urging governments, institutions and investors to prioritize sustainable cooling solutions that don’t further warm the planet, including planting trees for shade and using reflective building materials. The U.N. Environment Program and the International Finance Corporation issued a report last week on financing these solutions for the developing world during U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York.

It’s the latest U.N. effort to help countries and cities cool buildings without adding air conditioners, raise energy efficiency standards for cooling equipment and phase down highly-polluting refrigerants. The goal is to get to near-zero emissions from cooling by 2050.

“We’re faced with record-breaking temperatures. We need to save people from extreme heat,” said Lily Riahi, global coordinator for the UNEP-led Cool Coalition. “But we have to find a way to cool the planet in a way that doesn’t create more heat.”

Globally, 20% of electricity is used for cooling. If nothing changes, the demand for equipment such as air conditioners and refrigerators is projected to triple by 2050, doubling electricity consumption and driving up emissions from fossil fuels, according to UNEP.

At last year’s U.N. climate talks, a Global Cooling Pledge was launched to reduce emissions from cooling. And Riahi says the United States, one of 71 countries to endorse it, is a leader in using nature for cooling to tackle extreme heat.

A historic investment in urban trees is underway. The U.S. Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Program received $1.5 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. Grant applications flooded in as heat records were shattered in 2023. Nearly 400 projects were picked for funding.

Typically, the program gets about $40 million annually.

The cost of planting and maintenance is the major obstacle for most greening projects, said Daniel Metzger, a fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Where a project is transforming previously paved space, removing asphalt or concrete is generally the biggest expense, he said.

Urban areas often bear the brunt of harmful health and environmental effects from heat waves. It’s hotter in urban areas than surrounding suburbs — the “urban heat island” effect — because of abundant heat-absorbing surfaces.

Increasing a city’s tree canopy by 10% lowers the temperature by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Smart Surfaces Coalition. The coalition helps cities integrate cool roofs, green roofs, solar, porous pavement and urban trees.

“We can’t air-condition our way out of this problem,” said coalition founder Greg Kats. “The way to solve it is citywide cooling.”

As Detroit grew, the city built tall, concrete buildings, industrial areas, commercial corridors and roadways. What was once called a “city of trees” lost thousands. Some were cut down; others died from disease and pests.

Detroit was awarded $3 million through the urban forestry program to increase tree canopy in neighborhoods with few trees.

Eric Jones, a resident of the Woodbridge neighborhood, said some homeowners don’t want trees because they think squirrels and falling leaves are nuisances.

For Jones, 47, cooling in the summer outweighs that when he walks with his wife and daughter or goes running. Trees also improve air and water quality, help prevent storm water runoff, sequester carbon dioxide and can increase property values.

“On a day like today where it’s in the 80s or in the 90s and it’s sunny, I mean, it’s just amazing the difference that we feel in our neighborhood versus when we get outside and there isn’t near as much trees,” Jones said.

Detroit plans to plant 75,000 young trees over five years. Crystal Perkins, Detroit’s general services director, said it will take time to feel citywide impacts because immature trees need time to grow.

Meadows can help cool an area, too. Grasses and native plants can be a complementary approach to urban cooling because they reflect sunlight and absorb less heat than concrete or asphalt, said Lin Meng, an assistant professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt University.

The Forestry Program prioritized communities that have been historically “marginalized, underserved and overburdened by pollution,” in choosing projects to receive grants. Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Homer Wilkes said extreme heat disproportionately affects minority and low-income communities with little tree cover.