Like 70 other cities around the world (including San Francisco), Paris has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2050. That means that the city will offset as much emissions as it produces.

The previously abandoned neighborhood is Clichy-Batignolles, an area in the northwest of the city that was envisioned as part of the Olympic village if Paris had succeeded in winning its bid to be the host country for the 2012 Olympic Games. Those Games were instead in and around London.

The neighborhood is showing signs of being a model for such "green" improvement. At its hub is Martin Luther King Park, a 10-hectare green space that channels rainwater toward wetlands. Two-thirds of the homes that ring the park have rooftop solar panels; all homes are heated by a new geothermal plant. Residents also wait expectantly for the construction of a metro line, to provide a public transportation alternative to getting around by car.

Emission offset strategies employed in other places include featuring trees and other woodland elements because they absorb carbon dioxide. (In fact, one architect has made a name for himself in China by proposing apartment buildings that incorporate such greenery.)

The climate action plan that the Paris government adopted in March 2018 also calls for all of the energy produced by the city to be renewable by 2050. One of the headling-grabbing proposals in that climate action plan was a proposal to use sewage to heat public swimming pools.

Paris has long been the scene for environmentally friendly initiatives. One of the most well publicized was a 2012 proposal to adorn the iconic Eiffel Tower with thousands of trees.