IN-PLAN – 1st Policy Brief

Climate action at the regional and local levels is crucial to keep the EU on track towards carbon-neutrality. At the local scale, spatial planning plays a key role in territorial development, as it is both a planning and an executive system and the decisions within it are legally binding. Nevertheless, spatial planning still lacks integration with energy, climate and mobility, among others, which are crucial for sustainable and resilient local development. Furthermore, lack of communication and lack of convergence across sectoral policies weakens the effectiveness of public spatial planning investments.  

Yet, cities and regions increasingly express their ambition to take a more integrated spatial planning approach, therefore they seek the support and How-To-Guidance in managing the process, solving technical challenges, better integrating existing strategies and dealing with various stakeholder interests. 

This policy brief presents six practical steps for regional and local authorities to integrate energy, climate, and mobility into spatial planning. Furthermore, this policy brief outlines five integrated planning phases developed in the IN-PLAN practice that aims to facilitate the effective implementation of sustainable energy, climate, and spatial plans. The IN-PLAN practice is a newly developed framework and authorities are invited to test it with the partners’ collaboration.