Planning and Climate Change: Mitigation and Clean Energy Strategies

Energy issues and climate change are consuming nationwide attention in the U.S. today. The manner in which our communities site development and conserve land has an impact on energy demand, the types of energy resources available for future use, and on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Planners are on smart growth's front lines, but few are fully aware of the impact their work has on energy consumption, energy choices, and climate change. Many have had no direct experience with energy-efficient community design, the range of renewable energy options now available, or strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Planners can encourage efficient energy use, diversification of energy supply, and emissions reductions through their influence over the built and natural environments — including both where and how we build, and where and how we preserve open spaces. Professional planners have a real opportunity to affect change on a wide variety of subjects through their strategic position as advisors to policy makers in town, city, county, and regional governments.

For more cities and towns to implement efficient and clean energy strategies, planners must be aware of the energy and climate implications of what they do and have the knowledge and tools to incorporate energy and climate considerations in all aspects of planning.

How connected are energy issues to planning in your community? Has your jurisdiction been a leader in renewable energy promotion or climate change mitigation? What efforts still need to be made to unite energy and planning?

APA and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) have come together to address these concerns. With funding from the Surdna Foundation, the George Gund Foundation, and APA's Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy (ENRE) division, APA and EESI are undertaking initiatives that will lead to better integration of energy sustainability and climate change issues with planning. In August 2005 the team conducted survey of APA members to learn more about the state of planning with energy issues in mind. Click here to see the results of that survey.

If you would like to share with APA any planning documents or regulations that you feel actively integrate energy or climate issues into planning, please send an e-mail to energy@planning.org.