Urban green spaces are essential for air quality and help balance city temperatures. In Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, large-scale construction has significantly reduced the percentage of urban green cover, thus contributing to unbearable heat waves in summer.
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00:00It's another scorchingly hot day in Belgrade.
00:09Temperatures have soared to almost 40 degrees Celsius.
00:12It's cold, there's water, I don't know how to survive it.
00:22It's hard, it's hot, there's a bit of water, a bit of leprosy and so on.
00:29What can I do? I'm used to it. I have to drink water, I have to sunbathe, I have to wear protection.
00:34The Serbian capital is already experiencing the effects of climate change.
00:392023 was the hottest year on record.
00:42With more concrete and fewer green spaces, the new Belgrade district,
00:47which is home to more than 200,000 people, is really feeling the heat.
00:54There is a lack of greenery here, and a lack of quality greenery
00:59that has the potential to somehow absorb atmospheric water.
01:04Simic says that the main reason why green spaces keep being replaced by construction sites is investor urbanism.
01:11That's when private interest comes before public benefit.
01:15For example, the green areas in the modern residential complex known as West 65,
01:20which was built in 2022, are less than a tenth the size of the green areas
01:25in the apartment block housing estates of the 1970s.
01:29On the one hand, we have the energy efficiency of the building,
01:32the quality of the building, which is probably at a high level,
01:35but that doesn't make up for the lack of greenery.
01:40So both categories have to be respected,
01:43because they can make one block of the ecological block acceptable in synergy.
01:49But why is the municipality turning a blind eye to climate change?
01:55Why are the city's few remaining green spaces being replaced by concrete structures?
02:00DW approached the Belgrade authorities for comment,
02:03but had not received a response at the time of recording.
02:07Meteorologist Lazar Filipovic says that this is a sign of things to come.
02:14He has mapped urban heat islands,
02:16areas that get much warmer than their surroundings in summer,
02:20and he's convinced that the loss of more green spaces
02:23would make living conditions in Belgrade even worse.
02:27We found in our research that in certain parts of the city,
02:31during the summer, around 90 days,
02:34even 50 days are reported as tropical nights.
02:37Then the minimum temperature is above 20 degrees.
02:40In essence, as this trend continues,
02:43Belgrade will even be able to experience some conditions
02:46that are reported in some tropical cities.
02:49For example, a projection that by 2050,
02:52the temperature in Belgrade will be similar to that in Cairo.
02:56Experts think that one solution would be to introduce the Ecological Index,
03:00which measures an area's eco-environmental quality.
03:04This means that it is prescribed for each area
03:07for a specific zone of the city,
03:10and their purpose of that block, whether it is residential or commercial,
03:14a certain number of points are prescribed,
03:17which that block and the people who live on it
03:20must meet in terms of quantity and quality of greenery.
03:24But the amount of greenery in the city also depends on the implementation
03:28of the Plan for the General Regulation of Belgrade Green Areas,
03:32which already exists on paper, but is not yet legally binding.
03:36Until such time as the Plan is actually put into action,
03:39the people of Belgrade will continue to live in a concrete jungle,
03:43and temperatures there will continue to rise year on year.