Dr. Peter Hoffmann and Deniz Sirir at Climate Service Center Germany explore neutral carbon lifestyle changes and their impact on future health in cities
Cities and climate change
Cities are strongly affected by changes under climatic conditions, in particular the increase in extreme events such as strong precipitation, heat waves, droughts and storms, and at the same time, they are one of the main engines of climate change. Climate change can present substantial health risks for urban populations. These health risks include an increase in heat -related morbidity and mortality. Due to the high population density of urban areas, a large number of people are exposed to extreme events.
Thus, there is a growing need for city officials to adapt cities to climate change. Since cities are responsible for around 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions, there is also significant climate attenuation potential. Consequently, many cities around the world aim to reduce their emissions and become non -neutral carbon and resilients in the climate during the following decades.
Carbon neutral lifestyle changes
A crucial element in the realization of carbon neutrality is the adoption of carbon neutral lifestyles by urban inhabitants. Neutral carbon lifestyle changes include a wide variety of options that aim to modify or modify public consumption behavior, thus reducing CO2 emissions on the request.
For urban inhabitants, the proposed lifestyle change options relate mainly to mobility, reducing energy consumption thanks to changes in buildings and households, as well as changes in diets (Figure 1).
A transition from automotive mobility to active travel (for example, cycling and walking) and public transport, increased use of shared mobility, improving buildings insulation, reduction of interior heating parameters and the transition to a diet based on plants are among the most frequently proposed lifestyle change options in scientific literature.
Changes and health with neutral carbon and healthy life
There are only a few studies that have analyzed the potential health and well-being results of these lifestyle changes for urban populations. While the current research landscape suggests that neutral carbon lifestyle changes can have potential health and well-being advantages (Milner et al., 2020), key subjects such as these advantages would still be viable in a changing climate, how the adoption of neutral lifestyle changes would affect different socio-demographic groups and vulnerable life groups and Life of the moth, and the way in which the synergable is the changes in automotive lines are over by Synerget self-sufficient adaptation measures for cities must be explored.
For example, changes in modes of transport can lead to urban inhabitants to spend more time outside. This could increase the exposure of urban residents to thermal stress, in particular given the increase in extreme temperatures and heat waves. The increase in exposure to thermal stress could negatively affect the health and well-being of urban populations, especially vulnerable groups such as the elderly, children and people with pre-existing health problems.
Evaluate the impact of health style changes on health thanks to modeling
Gériques’ Cosynhealth The project (Hoffmann et al., 2024) takes up this challenge by integrating different modeling approaches, which consider societal and environmental processes influencing the health and well-being of urban populations. The project advances a modeling framework based on agents that simulates daily activities and associated location and mobility choices of urban inhabitants and combines them with very high resolution thermal stress data for current and future climate from an urban climate model.
With this modeling tool, the impact of life -changing change scenarios on current and future exposure to thermal stress of urban inhabitants and, thereafter, on the results for heat related to heat (for example, a heat stroke) will be analyzed. In addition, integration with an urban climate model makes it possible to assess synergies and potential compromises between life change scenarios and climate adaptation and mitigation strategies, in particular those related to urban morphology (for example, urban green, building insulation, fresh roof, etc.).
The ideas and tools developed in the Cosynhealth project aim to support decision-makers, urban planners and public health officials to assess the results of health and well-being of different carbon neutral lifestyle options as well as in the design of cities that are both sustainable and favorable to health.
References
- Sirin D., Hoffmann P., Scheffran J. (2025): Changes in lifestyle for the attenuation of the climate in cities and their relationship with urban health and well-being:
A review of literature. Sustainable Cities and Society, 119, - Hoffmann P., Bouwer LM, Huang-Lachmann J.-T. (2023): Understand the impact on climate change on health, free government government July 2023, pp.456-457. Consulted: May 13, 2025,
- Milner, J., Hamilton, I., Woodcock, J., Williams, M., Davies, M., Wilkinson, P. and Haines, A., 2020. Political health benefits to reduce carbon emissions. BMJ, 368,