Climate change and planning: the risk of aggravating socio-spatial exclusion
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Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
Throughout its evolution, urban planning has assimilated environmental thinking and the concept of sustainability. Now, climate change is affecting all human activities and, as should be expected, is also affecting the spatial planning in both theories and practices. At first, planning has incorporated the concepts of mitigation and adaptation, moving forward, then, to the notion of urban resilience. More recently, planners begin to understand that, like the environmental issue, the climate issue is also, in its essence, a social issue, inseparable from equity and social justice.
The intensification of extreme weather events and the acceleration of global climate change add urgency to the environmental debate, bringing challenges and opportunities that require a temporal and geographic cross-scale approach to coordinate global and local actions over several generations. Climate change, and the adaptations resulting therefrom, tend to reinforce the concentration of wealth and power, alienating local populations and increasing their vulnerability. In a stratified world, with asymmetrical power systems, the lack of understanding of the consequences of mitigation and adaptation to climate change may inadvertently reproduce or deepen the damage they aim to fix. So that interventions can be locally relevant, adaptation and climate mitigation should promote environmental justice in the form of rights and representation - empowerment of local people.
We noticed with concern that, frequently, the actions to adapt to climate change adopted in our cities are actually increasing the risk they should reduce. In addition to consuming scarce public and private resources, and a precious time of reaction, these bad adaptations cause, tragically, a false sense of security that only increases the danger to which the population is exposed.
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Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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