Spatial planning: an integrative approach to climate change response

Despite worldwide efforts to mitigate climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 2000 and 2010 have been higher than in the previous three decades. Overcoming substantial technological, economic and institutional challenges will be necessary in order to limit global warming to 2oC (Hartmann et al., 2013). Most strategies for coping with climate change and other global environmental changes are formulated and embedded in different development sectors such as energy, transit, agriculture, etc. Since these different sectors address land use and urbanization at specific geographical scales, both climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies can vary in spatial dimension. This, in turn, means that implementation occurs at either regional or local levels.