Abstract
Cities around the world are facilitating ambitious and inclusive action on climate change by adopting participatory and collaborative planning approaches. However, given the major political, spatial, and scalar interdependencies involved, the extent to which these planning tools equip cities to realise 1.5 °C climate change scenarios is unclear. This article draws upon emerging knowledge in the fields of urban planning and urban climate governance to explore complementary insights into how cities can pursue ambitious and inclusive climate action to realise 1.5 °C climate change scenarios. We observe that urban planning scholarship is often under-appreciated in urban climate governance research, while conversely, promising urban planning tools and approaches can be limited by the contested realities of urban climate governance. By thematically reviewing diverse examples of urban climate action across the globe, we identify three key categories of planning dilemmas: institutional heterogeneity, scalar mismatch, and equity and justice concerns. We argue that lessons from urban planning and urban climate governance scholarship should be integrated to better understand how cities can realise 1.5 °C climate change scenarios in practice.
Highlights
Cities are increasingly spearheading climate change action and pursuing innovative strategies both individually and collectively through transnational networks (Hughes, Chu, & Mason, 2018)
We apply a qualitative synthetic review method to explore linkages and tensions between two vast bodies of literature—urban climate governance and urban planning—and ask: how do existing planning tools equip cities to realise 1.5 °C climate change scenarios given the major political, spatial, and scalar interdependencies involved? To address this question, we first review emblematic examples of consultative approaches, co-creative participation, and planning support tools to thematically identify and analyse key institutional, scalar, and spatial priorities associated with cities taking action towards 1.5 °C trajectories (Section 2)
We argue that scholars of climate change governance stand to benefit greatly from the accumulated insights of urban planning
Summary
Cities are increasingly spearheading climate change action and pursuing innovative strategies both individually and collectively through transnational networks (Hughes, Chu, & Mason, 2018). Comparing planning approaches across the globe is fraught with methodological difficulties (Robinson, 2016) These may include challenges with comparing across political economic arenas (such as between the Global North and South); drawing meaningful trends from individually situated actions, strategies, and experiments; and defining key concepts like citizen engagement, participation, and inclusion across social, cultural, and spatial contexts. We first review emblematic examples of consultative approaches, co-creative participation, and planning support tools to thematically identify and analyse key institutional, scalar, and spatial priorities associated with cities taking action towards 1.5 °C trajectories (Section 2) We situate these within the literature on urban planning and governance and explore how they differ across cities in the Global North and South (Section 3). We aim to articulate practical, policy-relevant decision-making entry points in support of more ambitious and inclusive planning processes to meet the urgent challenge of achieving 1.5 °C trajectories in cities
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