Introducing the IN-PLAN Practice – A New Support Structure for Sustainable Energy, Climate, and Spatial Planning

In recent years, many local and regional authorities have set ambitious climate neutrality targets and are actively implementing the necessary transformations in energy and mobility to achieve these goals. Despite operating within various overarching framework conditions, these authorities play a crucial role in translating national and European climate targets into practical actions. They have control over spatial developments within their jurisdictions and often hold the legal mandate to develop and enforce spatial development plans. These plans outline future settlement and economic development while setting restrictions on land use. Given the strong correlation between spatial structures, energy demand and supply, and mobility patterns, spatial planning serves as a valuable tool for municipalities to drive crucial initiatives for addressing climate change and achieving net-zero targets.

The IN-PLAN Practice, developed under the framework of the LIFE IN-PLAN project, aims to provide municipalities, regions, and other public authorities with a comprehensive guidebook for integrating climate adaptation, mobility, and energy planning into spatial planning processes. It fosters institutionalised collaboration across different departments and stakeholders at all levels. As such, the practice is meant to:

• give guidance on how to utilise and integrate spatial plans to streamline sectoral planning instruments, documents, and plans;
• outline key aspects and milestones to consider during the spatial planning process;
• recommend practical tools, software, and methods conducting basic research, communication, and other essential planning tasks;
• identify which stakeholders should be involved both organisationally and content-wise;
• provide useful good practice examples.

The IN-PLAN Practice is designed to empower local and regional governments to develop, implement, and monitor ambitious integrated spatial plans with climate neutrality targets. It provides guidance on involving key actors from the local and regional levels throughout the planning process, from inception to implementation and monitoring, fostering stakeholder engagement and participatory governance concepts.

You can download the Practice here