Climate action guide for urban planners

By 2050, two out of every three people on Earth will be living in cities. As cities grow, they typically expand outwards, growing in area and converting more land to urban use. The built-up area of cities is therefore growing faster than their populations, leading to vast and sprawling cities, often occupying area vulnerable to climate hazards.

The guide, available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic, will support urban planners from cities around the world to play their full part in tackling the climate crisis. Urban planning is a city function which offers unparalleled opportunities to set cities on development pathways that are lower-carbon and more responsive to evolving climate risks.

The guide focuses on the preparation and policy content of urban plans – known variously as strategic spatial plans, master plans, land use plans, and more. The guide also identifies a range of planning policies from cities around the world which have been designed with specific climate considerations in mind.

Urban planning as a climate solution

The guide illustrates the importance of urban planning as a solution to rising climate challenges, with urban planners’ decisions defining cities’ capacities to meet climate goals and enhance quality of life for all residents, both now and into the future. For instance, the guide highlights how:

• Increased density and efficient built form can reduce emissions from buildings.
• Shortening distances and enabling mode-shift can reduce transport emissions.
• Curbing urban sprawl and greenfield development can help preserve natural land and its carbon sequestration potential.
• Controlling urban development on hazardous land can reduce exposure to climate risks such as flooding or landslides.
• Preserving natural land and prioritising land for nature-based solutions can mitigate the impact of climate events if they do occur.

After making the case for urban planning as a tool to drive impactful climate action, the guide focuses on two key components:

1. It distils ten common stages involved in preparing and delivering an urban plan, elaborating on how climate change considerations can be embedded within each of these stages.

2. It identifies and explains seven key planning policy areas for climate action and showcases examples of these in practice by cities from around the world. This includes examples of urban planning for:
   • Tackling flooding, extreme heat, and drought (Auckland, Cape Town, London, Singapore).
   • Nature (Bogotá, São Paulo, Oslo).
   • Resilient informal settlements (Nairobi, Mumbai, São Paulo).
   • Compact cities (Amman, Portland).
   • Polycentric cities and proximity (Seoul, Milan).
   • Mode-shift and transit-oriented development (Delhi, Austin, Mexico City, Jakarta).
   • Sustainable buildings (Shanghai, Medellín, London).

The guide demonstrates how it will be impossible to create greener, healthier, and more equitable cities without tackling the climate crisis. This resource will serve as a valuable guide for urban planners, who have a critical role to play in reducing cities’ greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing resilience to climate hazards.

• Resource (English): Salesforce
• Resource (Spanish): Salesforce
• Resource (French): Salesforce
• Resource (Portuguese): Salesforce
• Resource (Arabic): Salesforce

Author(s):  C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group

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