Urban climate leadership in spatial planning – innovative policy tools and planning instruments for climate transition

The policy tools of urban and regional planning (or ‘spatial planning’) are much more extensive than regulation alone, and include a wide range of policy tools that are available and used by governments in making, implementing and enforcing plans. Based on a conceptualisation of the policy tools of spatial planning by Dominic Stead (2021), the paper explores how this range of tools is used for climate mitigation purposes. More specifically, the paper studies how urban climate leadership, with ambitious climate goals (95% reduction by 2030) and innovative steering instruments like the climate budget, use a broad range of planning tools to reach their aim. It also analyses how urban climate leadership spurs innovation in spatial planning tools. The paper is based on a qualitative case study of the City of Oslo, which had the status of being the European Green Capital in 2019, and shows how existing and new spatial planning tools are developed to push private developers to implement more climate-friendly building projects. The analysis is based on document studies and qualitative interviews. Studies of front-runner cities in climate transition contribute to the research, as they provide new knowledge of and insights into what kind of governance innovation is needed for climate transition. This knowledge can be useful for the climate transition of other European cities. Stead, Dominic (2021) Conceptualizing the Policy Tools of Spatial Planning, Journal of Planning Literature 2021, Vol. 36(3) 297-311