Adapting to Climate Change at the Local Level: The Spatial Planning Response
Short Summary of Resource
This paper reviews the shift in local authorities' planning policies for climate change adaptation in the UK since 2000
Detailed description of the resource
This paper provides evidence of underlying attitudes amongst planning professionals to climate change. It shows that, while the issue of climate change is becoming recognized with respect to flood risk, the wider implications (for instance, for biodiversity and water resources) are not yet integrated into plans. The reasons for this lie in lack of political support and lack of engagement of the planning profession with climate change networks. But the paper also argues there are difficulties in acknowledging the need for adaptation at the local level, with the short-term horizons of local plans at odds with perceptions of the long-term implications of climate change.
