As part of its carbon neutrality 2050 commitment, the Buenos Aires city government will develop a platform to open and help visualize and monitor information related to green infrastructure in Buenos Aires. The initiative is part of the “Empowering cities with data” programme of the C40 Cities network and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, which subsidizes the use of data and information to monitor and evaluate policies to mitigate climate change in cities.

The platform will allow for the measurement of CO2 capture made possible by the city's green infrastructure -trees and green walls and roofs. In addition, it will publish the data so that universities, researchers, civil society organizations and the general public can make use of them.

Green infrastructure plays a fundamental role in mitigating and adapting to climate change: it helps capture carbon dioxide, regulates the temperature during hot summers and heat waves and, in the event of heavy rains, acts to regulate the flow of surface and underground water.

In this context, Secretary General and Secretary for International Relations, Fernando Straface, and Secretary of the Environment, Eduardo Macchiavelli, signed a collaboration agreement with Kevin Austin, Executive Director of C40, to add Buenos Aires to the programme. 10 other cities, including Lima, Quito, Accra, Jakarta and Johannesburg, are also part of the programme.

"The future of large cities must be sustainable. Having a platform that brings together all green infrastructure actions is essential to be able to plan inclusive public policies that are respectful to the environment and economically sustainable ", said Macchiavelli.

"This agreement confirms the city’s international commitments on climate change and will provide us with key information to analyze how we advance in our commitment to be a carbon neutral city by 2050", said Straface.

Currently, Buenos Aires is preparing its Climate Action Plan, which will be presented at COP26 in March 2021. One key element is urban afforestation, one of the main measures to offset emissions that cannot be avoided. The city of Buenos Aires has prioritized urban green infrastructure and urban forest policies as fundamental to its commitment to carbon neutrality. This programme will allow the city to advance with the Sustainable Development Goals of achieving more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities (SDG 11); providing universal access to green areas and safe, inclusive and accessible public spaces by 2030 (SDG 11.7;) and to adopt urgent measures to combat climate change and its effects (SDG 13).