Adapting spatial planning for a changing climate

The issue of adapting the ways we live to climate change – and that includes planning for our built and rural environment – has been placed centre stage by the recent severe flooding in Yorkshire and the Midlands.

There have been a host of initiatives launched across Europe to deal with planning for climate change. One of these, the ESPACE Project, set up in 2003 to look at how adaptation to climate change can be incorporated into the spatial planning system, is delivering its first results

Resources

Case studies online, a searchable resource (September 2007)

BRANCH project on planning for climate change

Planning for biodiversity as climate changes (BRANCH final report, 2007)
Spatial planners are key to providing opportunities for biodiversity to adapt to climate change. But in North West Europe, many of the current policies and planning systems will not meet this challenge. Action is needed now and it must happen at all scales, from the international to the local site level

Urban Design Quarterly on RUDI, spring 2007: adapting to climate change (full text online)

The ESPACE project with results

ESPACE July 2007 meeting presentations

New analysis (July 2007) counters claims that solar activity is linked to global warming

South East Climate Change Partnership, publications and case studies

George Monbiot on adapting to climate change:viable alternatives to energy planning

Sustainability and the built environment (IET)

European Climate Change Programme: impacts and adaptation

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC)

EU Green paper on climate change, July 2007

Stern report on climate change

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

PPS1 sets out the Government's planning policies on the delivery of sustainable development

The South West Sustainability Checklist for Developments

For environment-related content on RUDI, click here

For climate change-related content, click here

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Yet even as evidence mounts that climate change is having, and will continue to have, definite impacts on how we plan to live, we still find sceptics keen to promote a different message and to water down potential regulation. A recent poll, for example, has suggested that the public believes the effects of global warming on the climate are not as bad as politicians and scientists claim.

The Ipsos Mori poll of 2,032 adults - interviewed between 14 and 20 June 2007 - found that 56 per cent believed scientists were still questioning climate change. There was a feeling the problem was exaggerated to make money, it found.

The Royal Society said most climate scientists believed humans were having an ‘unprecedented’ effect on climate. Yet the survey suggested that terrorism, graffiti, crime and dog mess were all of more concern than climate change.

‘People should not be misled by those that exploit the complexity of the issue, seeking to distort the science and deny the seriousness of the potential consequences of climate change,’ said Sir David Read of the Royal Society. ‘The science very clearly points towards the need for us all - nations, businesses and individuals - to do as much as possible, as soon as possible, to avoid the worst consequences of a changing climate.’

The EU Green paper

The EU published a Green Paper on climate change on July 3 2007. Its conclusions are stark: Europe must get used to the effects of global warming in the near future and adapting to climate change should be included in European Union policy making, according to EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas.

The UK is not immune to the effects of climate change, as events in Sheffield show. What will be the future of the low lying Thames Gateway in years to come? Or of our coastal towns? Our built environment professionals need to consider very carefully what they build, and where they build it.

The UK Government has set an ambitious target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. Says Tony Blair: 'Climate change is the world’s greatest environmental challenge. It is now plain that the emission of greenhouse gases, associated with industrialisation and economic growth from a world population that has increased six-fold in 200 years, is causing global warming at a rate that is unsustainable.'

With buildings accounting for over 40 per cent of all UK carbon dioxide emissions, and with as many as 140,000 new homes needed each year it is no surprise that reducing these emissions is currently a key focus, and improving energy efficiency has been identified as being the cheapest, cleanest and safest way of doing this. To achieve a 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 requires radical action to be taken, since at least 75 per cent of the building stock that will be present in 2030 is already in existence.

With transport, infrastructure and energy also needing urgent attention, research is currently ongoing to suggest how countries like the UK can plan to adapt for climate change.

The ESPACE Project (European Spatial Planning: Adapting to Climate Events) project

ESPACE was set up in 2003 to look at how adaptation to climate change can be incorporated into the spatial planning system.

Says project leader Bryan Boult of Hampshire County Council: 'Once we began looking at how to plan for climate change, we realised that the UK planning system was not well equipped to deliver the adaptations that were needed. This was the same across the EC.

'ESPACE was born to bring together partners, and extended partners, to bring together experiecne, expertise and new ideas to tackle change.'

The results from the first session, 2003-2007, are now available – in a nutshell, that 'planning strategy must to take into account the effects of climate change which are already with us or are unavoidable and consider adaptation.'

This was also the key message of Prof Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of the EEA, when she spoke at a gathering of professionals working at the international ESPACE (European Spatial Planning: Adapting to Climate Events) project.

Even if global efforts to cut carbon emissions go beyond all expectations, Europe can expect to see a significant increase in severe weather such as drought, flooding and extreme heat waves in coming decades.

'While the worst effects of climate change may not hit Europe for many years we must prepare now,' said Prof McGlade.

'Climate change will have profound effects on our natural resources and will also change the way we go about our daily lives. We will not only lose biodiversity but also large parts of our territory, for example low-lying coastal areas and river basins as sea levels rise.'

According to Prof McGlade, many European countries have made token gestures in this area but few are seriously imbedding climate change into planning systems.

'While national strategies to adapt to climate change do exist in several European countries there are huge gaps,' she said.

'As we look out across Europe we see very little happening on adaptation despite the stark warnings from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Planners and planning authorities have a vital role to play.'

She also praised ESPACE for being one of the first projects for raising awareness on the need for planning systems to adapt to climate change, establishing trans-national and sub-national networks and contributing to EU policy development.

The Stern Review on the economics of climate change highlighted the crucial role of spatial planning in facilitating climate adaptation and emphasised that adaptation should be integrated into planning at every level. With climate change underway and future change unavoidable, all professional advice and political decisions must now take climate change into account.

ESPACE has taken a broad view of spatial planning, encompassing spatial planning professionals and those whose activities have a spatial planning dimension, such as managers of water, health, transport, design, agriculture and regeneration issues.

Its strategy therefore presents messages aimed at organisations and individuals involved in spatial planning, including politicians, who are the ultimate decision-makers in the policy-making process.

The UK’s plan-led system

The planning system in England and Wales follows a plan-led system. This involves preparing plans that set out what can be built and where. The plan-led system was updated by an Act of Parliament (the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act) in December 2004.

PPS1 sets out the Government's planning policies on the delivery of sustainable development through the planning system. This PPS replaces Planning Policy Guidance Note 1, General Policies and Principles, published in February 1997.

Under the new law there are now two main levels of plan:

Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS)
Each Regional Planning Body (such as the north-east of England) is preparing a Regional Spatial Strategy. This sets out things such as how many homes are needed to meet the future needs of people in the region, or whether the region needs a new major shopping centre or an airport.

Local Development Frameworks
Each local planning authority is preparing a Local Development Framework. This is a folder of documents that sets out how your local area may change over the next few years.

There is no nationwide spatial strategy for the UK. The top level plans are the Regional Spatial Strategies along with country-specific (Scotland, Wales, N Ireland) spatial planning strategy.